ID Thieves Exploit Snail Mail

Informed Delivery, a free service provided by the U.S. Postal Service, offers a convenient way to track your mail—but it could also make you more vulnerable to identity theft.

When you sign up for Informed Delivery, the USPS will e-mail you scanned images of your unopened letters, including credit card statements and utility bills, before they arrive in your mailbox. The service also lets users see the delivery status of a package, provide delivery instructions and set up a redelivery.

Here’s the catch: Anyone can sign up for Informed Delivery, using their own e-mail address and your name and mailing address. That means an identity thief could, say, open a credit card in your name, sign up for Informed Delivery to track when the card hits your mailbox, and steal it before you retrieve your mail. He or she could also use the service to poach packages left on your porch.

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The easiest way to avoid this problem is to beat the bad guys to the punch. Only one e-mail per user is allowed for the service, so if you sign up for an Informed Delivery account at informeddelivery.usps.com, scammers won’t be able to impersonate you and hijack your mail. Once you sign up online, you should receive a confirmation in the mail.