Did we just uncover a major post office scheme?

[Anonymous 1]

I am the one who was posting last year about all of the suspicious and hostile activity in my office's business park. We have an ongoing problem with trash and also theft.

Last year, we had several checks stolen out of the mailbox here. Both incoming and outgoing checks. It's one of those huge community lockers of locked mail boxes. Some of the other offices in the business park had the same problem. We moved all of our mail to a PO box at one of those mail and copy places and we didn't have any more problems. We've also had several instances of fraud on our company credit cards but we don't know if it is related to any of this, just that it has happened several times.

This month, we stopped getting any and all mail at our PO Box for the last two weeks. Finally, we went to check the mail again and there was a single envelope with a yellow sticker on it from USPS saying something like, "Mail forwarded- temporary suspension". Like, they were rejecting the forwarding of the mail. So, two weeks of mail was forwarded somewhere else until someone thought it was suspicious, put that sticker on, and sent it to the post office box.

Come to find out, someone has forwarded all of our mail from our PO Box. However, when we spoke to USPS (and also tried to change our address online & by phone) we were told that they cannot do this because of the type of PO Box we have. They suggested we cancel our PO box and pay the mail place a fee to forward our mail for a time being, then open up a new PO box and let all of our contacts know that we have changed addresses.

We checked and double checked with them- there is NO WAY to change our address or have our mail forwarded whether we call, do it online, or go to the USPS locations. Doesn't that mean it was an inside job? Someone in the post office must have been stealing our checks last year and has also "forwarded" or stolen our mail.

[Anonymous 2]

Mail theft and theft of the "master" keys is a big thing right now, and has been extreme since Covid. Postal carriers are getting shot or robbed at gunpoint over things like "master keys" (supposedly worth thousands on the black market.) It's quite possible someone in your area has a master key and was using it to access multiple community boxes. I work at the PO and we always have tons of mail being held at the post office because of break-ins and people have to come to the PO for months to get their mail till we get those boxes fixed. These criminals like to steal checks, credit cards, and personal info so they participate in other ID theft crimes. However, having a key would make it nice and neat for them to pick and choose which items they swipe from boxes.

It is correct that mail cannot be forwarded from a "PO box place" like postal annex or UPS stores that have boxes, because they are business addresses and doing so would forward ALL mail going to that address (basically all the boxes' and all the business's mail would be forwarded). I'm not sure it would even be possible on the inside to "override" this.

[Anonymous 1]

Mail theft and theft of the "master" keys is a big thing right now, and has been extreme since Covid. Postal carriers are getting shot or robbed at gunpoint over things like "master keys" (supposedly worth thousands on the black market.) It's quite possible someone in your area has a master key and was using it to access multiple community boxes. I work at the PO and we always have tons of mail being held at the post office because of break-ins and people have to come to the PO for months to get their mail till we get those boxes fixed. These criminals like to steal checks, credit cards, and personal info so they participate in other ID theft crimes. However, having a key would make it nice and neat for them to pick and choose which items they swipe from boxes.

It is correct that mail cannot be forwarded from a "PO box place" like postal annex or UPS stores that have boxes, because they are business addresses and doing so would forward ALL mail going to that address (basically all the boxes' and all the business's mail would be forwarded). I'm not sure it would even be possible on the inside to "override" this.

Good to know! My manager mentioned yesterday that she thinks someone at the PO may have pre-printed those yellow stickers and was putting them on themselves. I have never had mail forwarded so I don't even know what is on the stickers. Is that something that may have been possible?

[Anonymous 3]

The mail forwarding system is terrible. I fought for over a year to get my mail forwarded before I just gave up. My mail person told me the other day they just started requiring ID to forward mail to prevent fraud but I'm not sure if it's nationwide or just here. The system is just terrible but no I don't think you uncovered anything.

[Anonymous 1]

The mail forwarding system is terrible. I fought for over a year to get my mail forwarded before I just gave up. My mail person told me the other day they just started requiring ID to forward mail to prevent fraud but I'm not sure if it's nationwide or just here. The system is just terrible but no I don't think you uncovered anything.

Well, someone cashed the checks.... I guess they'll find out who it is, maybe they will tell us.

[Anonymous 2]

The mail forwarding system is terrible. I fought for over a year to get my mail forwarded before I just gave up. My mail person told me the other day they just started requiring ID to forward mail to prevent fraud but I'm not sure if it's nationwide or just here. The system is just terrible but no I don't think you uncovered anything.

It's nationwide.