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posted by Fnord666 on Sunday November 11 2018, @09:59AM   Printer-friendly
from the picture-this dept.

Submitted via IRC for Bytram

U.S. Secret Service Warns ID Thieves are Abusing USPS's Mail Scanning Service — Krebs on Security

A year ago, KrebsOnSecurity warned that “Informed Delivery,” a new offering from the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) that lets residents view scanned images of all incoming mail, was likely to be abused by identity thieves and other fraudsters unless the USPS beefed up security around the program and made it easier for people to opt out. This week, the U.S. Secret Service issued an internal alert warning that many of its field offices have reported crooks are indeed using Informed Delivery to commit various identity theft and credit card fraud schemes.

The internal alert — sent by the Secret Service on Nov. 6 to its law enforcement partners nationwide — references a recent case in Michigan in which seven people were arrested for allegedly stealing credit cards from resident mailboxes after signing up as those victims at the USPS’s Web site.

According to the Secret Service alert, the accused used the Informed Delivery feature “to identify and intercept mail, and to further their identity theft fraud schemes.”

“Fraudsters were also observed on criminal forums discussing using the Informed Delivery service to surveil potential identity theft victims,” the Secret Service memo reads.

The USPS did not respond to repeated requests for comment over the past six days.


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  • (Score: 3, Informative) by tibman on Sunday November 11 2018, @08:32PM (1 child)

    by tibman (134) Subscriber Badge on Sunday November 11 2018, @08:32PM (#760705)

    I just signed up to see for myself. The questions were actually really good. Someone would have to either know me personally or have a lot of detailed knowledge about my past.

    They probably should send you some physical mail though to confirm you are who you say you are.

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  • (Score: 2) by LVDOVICVS on Sunday November 11 2018, @11:30PM

    by LVDOVICVS (6131) on Sunday November 11 2018, @11:30PM (#760735)

    I just signed up for this about a week and a half ago. They asked me four questions. 1) How much did we pay for our house (dollar range). 2) The year our house was built. 3) Which one of four choices was an old phone number of mine. (Not a current one, but used about five or more years ago.) and 4) The last four digits of my social security number.

    I found it a bit disturbing they had this info at the tips of their fingers.

    A few days ago I received a piece of mail alerting me that the account had been set up.