Mail Box Theft & Fraud at Devon-Aire #1 West 5/3/2020

A member of the community reported that on the week of May 3rd, they placed a letter in their mailbox which contained a check for around $30. To let the letter carrier know they had a letter waiting for pickup, they raised the mailbox flag on the side of the mailbox.  To their surprise, they found out later in the week that the check was cashed for several thousand dollars. Someone evidently stole the letter from the mailbox and altered the check allowing them to drain their account of funds.

With the current pandemic and all the disruptions that it has caused, the one thing that hasn't changed is crime.  Even though there are stay at home orders in place, please do not leave mail in your mailbox especially with the mail flag in the upright position. Not only does it let the letter carrier know that you have mail waiting to go out, but it also lets thieves know. We recommend that you either drop the letter off at the post office or wait for your letter carrier and deliver it to them by hand.  Never leave mail in your mailbox overnight. Also, to stay informed of what mail your are supposed to be receiving, we highly recommend that you subscribe to USPS Informed Delivery by Clicking Here before a would be scammer does so for you.  Thieves are using the service to commit identity theft.  Subscribing to the service before they do will prevent a scammer from seeing what mail you have coming in such as credit cards, government checks, etc... For additional articles related to USPS Informed Delivery and related fraud, please see the links below.

References:

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1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Informed_Delivery
2. https://krebsonsecurity.com/2018/11/u-s-secret-service-warns-id-thieves-are-abusing-uspss-mail-scanning-service
3. https://southfloridareporter.com/warning-id-theft-and-credit-card-fraud-attacks-hit-post-office-informed-delivery-feature
4. https://www.clickorlando.com/news/2018/11/01/residents-say-new-service-exposed-them-to-identity-theft-mail-fraud