In my many moves over the past few years, I've sometimes noted how retro the Post Office's change-of-address procedure seems -- the last few times I've done it, I've simply picked up a card at the PO, written my new address on a few cramped lines, and dropped the card in the mail. A few weeks later, presto! Mail starts showing up at my new address. Abuse of this system seems too easy, as in this example from the other day:
A man was charged with using scores of change-of-address forms to divert mail from all over the nation to his address in Beaver County.
Federal prosecutors this week charged Fred Hill of Aliquippa with wire fraud, accusing him of diverting mail from people both living and dead.
Postal inspectors said in court records that when they entered an Aliquippa home where Mr. Hill had stayed, they found "a significant volume" of abandoned mail along with lists of Social Security numbers and names of people in California, Georgia and Arkansas.
Of course, this scam could be used for purposes less nefarious than ID fraud -- anyone could anonymously drop an address change on someone they want to mess with -- or simply have their mail held for an annoying period of time, using the PO's handy online or paper forms.
Of course I'm not advocating this -- it is my duty as a blogger to state the obvious. (In fact, I'm usually so dim when it comes to clever schemes like this that on the off chance one does occur to me, I figure most everyone from Nigeria to New York has thought of it long before. If there's a catch to all this, I obviously have overlooked it, so feel free to correct me ...)
Anyway, in the article, the PO says they have "systems in place to prevent this type of occurrence," but doesn't elaborate on exactly what these are. Now I'm going to have a new flavor of paranoia to contend with when my New Yorkers are delayed ...
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