Three million scam letters stopped from reaching UK households

Royal Mail has intercepted three million fraudulent letters from reaching UK homes in under 18 months.
Royal Mail.Royal Mail.
Royal Mail.

Since stepping up its drive against scammers in November 2016, several initiatives have been set up to protect consumers from fraudulent mail which has included invitations to participate in fake lotteries and letters from people posing as clairvoyants.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Some of the fraud prevention initiatives has included training frontline workers to identify fraudulent material and impounding the scam mail at distribution centres.

Read More
Snow causes problems on South Yorkshire's roads

Stephen Agar, managing director of letters at Royal Mail said: “We are committed to doing everything we can to stop this fraudulent material from reaching UK households.

“We continue to deploy a range of different initiatives to keep one step ahead of the scammers.”

A joint initiative with the National Trading Standards Scams Team was originally introduced in 2014 where thousands of frontline workers at Royal Mail were trained in how to identify scam mail and spot potential victims. The work was stepped up in late 2016.

READ MORE: Yorkshire travel and weather: More snow blows in to cause rush hour chaosThe team estimates postal scams could be netting criminals worldwide up to £10 billion a year.