Mail Security And Privacy
PROTECT INCOMING MAIL: I’ve already discussed your choices to deal with how you receive mail in an earlier chapter. Here, I want to make some points about what you don’t want to do with your mail as most people do:
NEVER receive mail at home where anyone could simply open your mailbox and steal your mail. You are risking great financial damages, Identity Theft, and much worse is possible. Every day, more than 100,000 mailboxes have mail stolen from them.
If you walk out and place outgoing mail in a curbside mailbox, you are noticeable in so doing. Then you raise a red flag to tell your mail carrier but you also tell the entire snoopy neighborhood you have outgoing mail. The red flag also tells a passing mail thief you have outgoing mail and invites them to steal the contents of your mailbox. Mail thieves go thru your stolen mail hoping to find checks you’ve written. They wash off the payee and insert themselves as payee, then alter the amount to collect large sums of money when they cash your check. With that single check, a mail thief can order a new set of checks in your name online then write bad checks everywhere. The mail thief can use information found in your mail to steal your identity, then apply for new credit in your name and cause you even more financial harm by ordering online or from catalogs. Worse, you could find yourself arrested for bad checks passed or fraudulent credit card activity done by your ID Thief.
If your mail goes into a locked box, that is better. It is not as safe as both sending and receiving mail anonymously at a P O Box or Private Mail Service that is NOT associated with your living address.
Consider that a curious child, baby-sitter, or a houseguest could view or even open your mail and see private information. This could be financial information in a bank statement, an investment account, bad news from an attorney, or even good news you might want to keep private. Securing your mail so only you can access it avoids these types of issues.
You are at risk for invasion of your privacy by the mail carrier who sees every letter and parcel even if nobody else sees your mail. Anyone who sees how each piece is addressed and return addressed can learn a whole lot about you. It is wise to avoid risks to your privacy from mail carriers, snoopy neighbors, friends, relatives, business associates, etc. You should NEVER put outgoing mail in an unsecured mailbox for the same reasons.
If your mail is intercepted or stolen, payments you thought you made to pay bills are never received. You are now subjected to late fees and penalties as well as any check fraud damages or identity theft damages and costs.
DOES THE USPS PHOTOGRAPH YOUR MAIL? Thanks to an anonymous USPS insider, the following can be reported:
1. The front side of an envelope is photographed and a fine color bar code is sprayed on the backside of the letter at the same time.
2. The photo is next sent to a remote site where a worker keys in a unique bar code for that specific piece of mail.
3. Next, your letter passes through a machine that reads the light-colored bar code on the backside and sprays a regular bar code on the lower front side of the envelope. If a letter already has a bar code, it will not usually have a photo taken. An example would be mail from a utility company that bypasses this process. Nobody knows for how long the photos are stored.
WHAT HAPPENS TO MAIL RETURNED FOR INSUFFICIENT POSTAGE, WRONG ADDRESS, OR DAMAGES?
These circumstances will cause your letter to go to Atlanta, Saint Paul, or San Francisco. These are the USPS three major mail recovery centers and once your letter goes there, it will be opened and examined.
HOW TO PROTECT OUTGOING MAIL: The thing to do here is make it appear as normal as possible. A standard size #10 envelope with a laser-printed label is best. A sealed, taped, or noticeably protected envelope calls attention and is a risk for theft but if needed, enclose everything in a slightly smaller #9 envelope then insert that one into a #10 envelope. This can also serve to offset an envelope’s transparency when sprayed with liquid Freon.
IS INCOMING AND OUTGOING MAIL SECURE? Depends on where it’s from or going to! Some suspicious businesses and individuals have their mail watched. The Patriot Act has lessened the privacy of mail. There are also certain government agencies that watch mail to and from tax haven countries.
Here is a list of countries by region that are listed on various Tax Haven Lists:
Caribbean and West Indies Anguilla:
Antigua and Barbuda
Aruba
Bahamas
Barbados
British Virgin Islands
Cayman Islands
Dominica
Grenada
Montserrat
Netherlands Antilles
St. Kitts and Nevis
St. Lucia
St. Vincent and Grenadines
Turks and Caicos
U.S. Virgin Islands
Central America:
Belize
Costa Rica
Panama
Coast of East Asia:
Hong Kong
Macau
Singapore
Europe and Mediterranean:
Andorra
Channel Islands (Guernsey and Jersey)
Cyprus
Gibraltar
Isle of Man
Ireland
Liechtenstein
Luxembourg
Malta
Monaco
San Marino
Switzerland
Indian Ocean:
Maldives
Mauritius
Seychelles
Middle East:
Bahrain
Jordan
Lebanon
North Atlantic:
Bermuda
Pacific, South Pacific:
Cook Islands
Marshall Islands
Samoa
Nauru
Niue
Tonga
Vanuatu
West Africa:
Liberia
URGENT NOTE: Do this immediately to protect your mail. Forward your mail to a safe location. When you fill out the mail forwarding application form from the USPS, DO NOT check the box for “Permanent”. If you do so, your name and address will go into the USPS change of address database. This database is sold to the commercial mail list providers and your name and address will end up in an untold number of computers, and there goes your privacy! Instead, mark it “Temporary” and give a date (6 months maximum). When the date arrives, your mail will revert to the old address unless you tell the USPS to stop forwarding mail and then mail will be returned to sender. So fill out the proper USPS form and have them stop forwarding your mail and have it returned to sender. Meanwhile, tell only those parties you wish to of your new protected mailing address.
Buy a quality shredder and shred everything you don’t wish to keep in a locked filing cabinet.
Copy the British and DO NOT use a return address or use a return address that is not your home and protected if you must.
Consider going paperless with your bank accounts, credit cards, etc., then secure your computer so nobody can use it to access your online account information (Computer Security covered next).
Pay your accounts online and avoid mailing a check and the postage costs as well.
NOTE: The USPS is becoming more restrictive … any parcel weighing more than 13 ounces must be taken to the counter where they will insist on a return address. The day is coming sooner than later when a return address will be required for all mail.
IMPORTANT NOTE: It is far better to avoid potential for harm and have your mail serviced by an anonymous locked box in a wall of boxes. This can be at a Private Mail Service, an Online Private Mail Service, or use a P O Box with the USPS. There are ways around encryption, but this will stop 99% of hackers and police.