I am writing hoping you can print some of my letter to save other people from getting caught in the way I have been caught. Last week I ordered an item from Ebay.

A few days later I received a card in the post from Royal Mail telling me I needed to pay £3.50 to receive a parcel.

My husband and I went to our local sorting office to see if the card had really come from them and were told yes it had.

Although the parcel had six first class stamps on it and a note saying ‘signed for’ , we were told there was insufficient postage. We were given two options – either pay the £3.50 and take away the parcel or have two weeks to think about what we wanted to do. If we rejected it we would lose the item inside and the money we had paid for it.

We chose the latter thinking we would contact the seller.

When I checked the order on my laptop the only firm given was Family Bargains with no address given. I had no luck trying to trace this firm. We decided to return to the sorting office for more information.

We pointed out there was sufficient stamps on the parcel for it to be sent first class signed for according to the weight of the parcel so could they explain why the card said ‘insufficient postage’. We had looked carefully at the stamps. They had not been franked. The little pieces which would come away from the stamp had the stamp been moved from another letter/parcel and the watermark which can be seen when looked very carefully at a stamp from a certain angle was still there.

We then asked for more information as to why it was marked insufficient funds. We were told that when the stamps went through their scanner they were rejected as they were counterfeit.

Having already paid for the item we had no option other than to either reject it and lose the money we had paid for the item or pay the £3.50 which we reluctantly did.

Apparently there is an ‘offer’ going round online for people to buy stamps in large quantities at a much cheaper price and it seems that is what this firm must have done as the sheets are all counterfeit.

So if you see that advert – please ignore it.

NAME AND ADDRESS SUPPLIED