Scam ads appearing on social media claim to offer ‘up to 60% off’ of stamps
With the cost of stamps having risen again this year, scammers have impersonated Royal Mail with fake offers for stamps at bargain prices.
This comes at a time when first-class stamps have risen by 15p to £1.25, making large discounts on stamps tempting. Although the amount of letters being sent has decreased over the years, seven billion letters were handled by the Royal Mail between 2022 and 2023. Royal Mail estimates that it handles around 150 million cards during the Christmas period.
Scammers are claiming to sell a sheet of 80 second-class stamps for £60, but these phoney offers lead to phishing websites designed to steal your personal and financial information.
Read below to understand how to avoid and report this scam.
A scam post on Facebook advertising discounted stamps
A Facebook page titled ‘Royal Postal Mail’ promotes second class stamps as part of a ‘clearance sale for 3 days only’ and encourages you to ‘buy before the deadline’. The post also includes a link to theroyalmail.shop.
The scam ad was shared by members of the Which? Facebook Scam Action and Alerts Group.
A scam website impersonating The Royal Mail
A scam website impersonating The Royal Mail
The websites use Royal Mail branding, luring people in with tempting offers including ‘free shipping’ and ‘buy 4 get 20% off’.
These scam websites have an ‘about us’ page, fake reviews, a privacy policy and even contact information detailing the address of a Post Office shop.
Large discounts are advertised to lure you in, for example, a sheet of eight first class stamps is reduced from £100 to £49 and a sheet of 50 large second class stamps is discounted from £77.50 to £36.
Links on these scam websites to Royal Mail's social media accounts and a ‘track your order’ page either don't work or lead to fake accounts.
We have reported these fake websites to the National Cyber Security Centre and Royal Mail.
Where to buy stamps
The official Royal Mail website is www.royalmail.com.
You can buy official stamps from most supermarkets, stationery shops or your nearest post office.
Non-barcoded stamps have been phased out this year and you can no longer send post with a non-barcoded stamp. You can exchange your non-barcoded stamps for the new barcoded stamps through the Royal Mail's Stamp Swap Out scheme.
Spotting and reporting scam posts and websites
Some signs that social media posts and websites are fraudulent include:
You can report scam Facebook posts and pages by selecting the three dots on the right and pressing ‘report’ and dodgy websites can be reported to the National Cyber Security Centre.
If you have been the victim of a scam, call your bank immediately using the number on the back of your bank card and report it to Action Fraud or call the police on 101 if you’re in Scotland.