• Royal Mail has launched another initiative to protect consumers from scam mail.
• Company has successfully stopped more than 700,000 scam mail items from reaching customers since November.
• Latest initiative will focus on customers receiving high volumes of scam mail
• Royal Mail will impound scam mail at distribution centres before it reaches the customer’s letterbox
• Legitimate business and personal mail will be delivered in the usual way

Royal Mail has launched another major new initiative to protect consumers from scam mail. Since November, Royal Mail has successfully stopped more than 700,000 scam items from reaching its customers.

As part of its ongoing battle against the fraudsters, Royal Mail will begin proactively contacting by Special Delivery households it believes are receiving high volumes of scam mail. The latest anti-scam initiative will initially focus on most-impacted customers. It will be extended in due course.

Royal Mail will block and impound scam mail at its major distribution centres before it reaches the customer’s letterbox. Legitimate business and personal mail will continue to be delivered to the customer in the usual way.

Impacted customers will be able to contact a dedicated Royal Mail helpline, email or Freepost address for more information if they have any concerns or arrange a home visit from Royal Mail staff.

Separately, working with an overseas postal operator, letters sent by UK residents to a known scam operation in Europe have been successfully intercepted. The letters, which contained cash sums, are being returned to the householders.

The initiative is the latest in Royal Mail’s rolling programme of moves designed to confound and stop scammers from reaching customers. In November, the company launched an industry-wide code of practice, developed by Royal Mail and supported by firms including Whistl and UK Mail to crack down on scam mail.

This includes the quicker sharing of intelligence on potential scam mail, the introduction of anti-scam clauses into bulk mail contracts and engaging at a European level with other postal operators.

Source: Royal Mail Group