Identity Theft Made Easy by the USPS

Did you know that your US mail may be diverted by anyone at any time to any location of their choosing?  A child can do it.

The United States Postal Service was created in 1971 by the Postal Reorganization Act.  This change eliminated the old Post Office Department.  While the act was meant to improve the postal service so that it would function more like a business, the USPS is still a government organization.  As such, it suffers much from the same bureaucratic ills of any government entity.

While much of their business functions with relative efficiency, i.e., the mail gets delivered, there is at least one area that is in serious need of overhaul.  That area of concern is the Official Mail Forwarding Change of Address Order, or PS Form 3575 to be more precise.  This simple form measures roughly 5” X 7” and has 10 basic line items.  It shouldn’t take more than a couple of minutes to complete by any legitimate citizen or thief.  The postage is prepaid by the Post Office.

Change of Address Post Card

While the USPS requires validation in the form of a minimal bank charge for an online address change, the paper post card version has no verification process.  Therein lies the problem, anyone can complete the form.  There is no verification of the signature placed on the form.  No identification is required.  Any individual can divert your mail to any location of their choosing with barely two minutes of effort.  Think about that.  Your credit cards, financial statements, bills, investment information, social security correspondence, banking information, tax returns, personal correspondence, personal information, medical information, medications, and packages can all be sent to anyone anywhere with the stroke of a pen, or pencil for that matter.

This can be done by anyone to anyone.  You just need the name and address of a person and you can send their mail anywhere you want.  Scammers don’t have to risk showing up at a post office and the change is almost immediate.

The USPS does mail a form letter to your address notifying you of the address change.  This may arrive after your mail has been diverted.  If you do receive this notification, and realize it is an important document, you are directed to call 1-800-ASK-USPS if you didn’t authorize the redirection of your mail.

It's Comforting to Know That the Postal Inspectors Still Ride Horses

There are two problems with this.  That notification phone number, when I called, estimated my wait time to be just over an hour.  The second more serious problem is that the notice looks like junk mail.  Mine was literally stuffed with advertising much of which was related to my “recent move.”  There were fliers for hauling services, car insurance, life insurance, DirctTV, Lowe’s, and Xfinity.  With so much crap stuffed in one envelope, it would be easy to miss the “flier” from the USPS Change of Address Security Division.  I'm sure the USPS makes a few advertising dollars with this part of the venture, but is it worth the risk?

Junk Mail, Your Change of Address Notification May Be In Here

Identity theft is one of the fastest growing crimes in America and the USPS is still using a 1950’s mentality with the Honor System.  In 2016, the cost of identity theft has been estimated at 16 billion dollars and it affected over 15 million people.

Simple changes in USPS policies and procedures would go a long way to either solving the problem or at least make life more difficult for thieves.  My recommendations for change are as follows:

• Eliminate the post card Change of Address Order.  Keep the form but require that it be hand delivered to a postal facility where identification must be provided and recorded.

•  Modify the form so that the signature line clearly states that fraudulent filings are subject to fines and up to 5 years imprisonment.  The current “see conditions on reverse” statement is not sufficient.

•  Modify the form to require a telephone number or an email address.  Individuals who have neither would delay the activation of the change until a notification letter has been mailed to the original address.

• The Postal Service should allow anyone to "lock down" their mailing address with personal information like a copy of authorized signatures, passwords or pin numbers, verifying phone numbers and/or email addresses.  Requests for change of locked accounts would require validation of the request using the provided information. 

•  Remove all advertising fliers and clutter from the Change of Address notification.  Mark it clearly as An Important Document from the United States Postal Service.

•  When evidence of a fraudulent Change of Address is discovered, both the legitimate and the bogus address postal carriers and annexes should be notified immediately.  The illegitimate location should take steps to prevent errant delivery.

In the 1950’s there were but a few credit cards in use, the Internet had not been invented, and home computers did not exist.  Identity theft was not the epidemic it is today.  In the 1950’s a post card change of address form made sense.  In the 21^st Century however, the Honor System represented by the USPS’ use of an unverified process for redirecting critical personal information, is an abhorrent decision.

While the above listed recommendations for change may involve a level of inconvenience for a few, a loss of advertising revenue for the USPS, and bit of extra work, the alternative is the continued exploitation of vulnerable individuals by criminals.  The grief and consternation caused by the theft of your personal information is reason enough to put up with the minor inconvenience of these recommended changes.  It is high time to correct this flaw in the system.