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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: 2) by urza9814 on Monday November 12 2018, @05:15PM

    by urza9814 (3954) on Monday November 12 2018, @05:15PM (#760970) Journal

    Ugh, it's caused just as many problems as it solves for me.

    First issue is that they routinely mark in the tracking information that stuff has been delivered when it wasn't. If I'm not home to receive a package, they don't deliver it, but they say that they did. Then the next day they "deliver" it to a neighbor, without telling me who they gave it to. Then they tell me I'm on my own to try and track it down. So then I started going into the app and leaving delivery instructions telling them exactly what to do with it...but they ignore those every single time. At this point I really wish the post office would allow me to just place a hold on all packages, but apparently that's not possible either because they sort stuff directly onto the trucks or something.

    And it's constantly showing me my neighbors' mail...it doesn't seem to be very good at associating a mailpiece with the correct address. I've never actually gotten those delivered into my box, but I do get a daily email showing me what they're about to receive...

    I really wish USPS could just shut down and get taken over by UPS...they're the only ones who seem to understand how to deliver shit to the goddamn given address instead of just declaring their job is finished because the package fell off the back of the truck and therefore is no longer in their possession so it's not their problem anymore...

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