Every day millions of people are expecting a letter or package in the mail.
The U.S. Postal Service has a feature that lets you see what’s coming to its customers' mailboxes and when — but it's allowed thieves to find ways to intercept valuable personal information.
Informed Deliveryallows users to preview mail with digital images through email notifications, an online dashboard, or a mobile app.
Users can sign up for Informed Delivery online or at any post office More than 13 million people have signed up for the service.
However, the USPS says that in a few cases, people’s identities have been compromised.
One woman in Palm Beach County, Florida who was granted anonymity for this story says it started with a simple walk to the mailbox.
The woman first learned she was the victim of identity theft last Fall, and she claims scammers also tried stealing her mail last month.
I She says she received a notification that she had signed up for Informed Delivery in her mailbox, even though she had never signed up for the service. Later, she received a Jet Blue credit card in the mail, for which she had also not signed up.
She said she also received an alert from Bank of America about a second credit card that she had no knowledge of.
"Then, at that point, I said, 'OK, there’s something going on here,'" she said.
USPS released this statement:
In a very few cases, an individual’s identity has already been compromised by a criminal who then has used it to set up an Informed Delivery Account.
"Then they are aware of when that credit card may be coming to your mailbox," the woman said.
Luckily, she was able to intercept the credit card before the scammers did. Reporters referred the woman to the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, which is now investigating.
The woman is now taking extra precautions, actively monitoring all her accounts, and she installed a new mailbox with a lock inside.
"You helped to put me in touch with somebody who I felt really cared about what’s going on, because this is a serious matter. It’s really bad,” she said.
Creating a fraudulent account is illegal.
Customers have two options to report a potentially fraudulent Informed Delivery account (or block your address):
Report it online by clicking here Call Technical Support at 1-800-344-7779
The customer needs to provide their full name, mailing address, phone number, email address, and the fraud they are reporting.
You can:
Request that an individual account at an address be blocked.Request that no Informed Delivery accounts be allowed for the address at all.The customer reporting the fraud will also be blocked from signing up for Informed Delivery.The block will remain in place even if the tenant/homeowner changes.
