“Even if you report to USPS about stolen mail, they do nothing.”
Several years ago we were contacted by the San Leandro (CA) PD. It seems that they had apprehended a young BLACK girl trying to cash a machine-generated check for $1600 on our business bank account. It was an exact replica of the checks we use to pay bills in our business. The bank clerk had called the cops when he/she noted that the check number was way out of sequence with the current checks we were issuing. I might add that the woman had already successfully passed another check in a bank branch over in San Mateo for $2400. When she was interrogated, she told the cops that she was working for a “ring” that got it’s check info from a person at the USPS Richmond Bulk Mail Processing Center. Evidently, their contact opened a utility bill we had mailed, took a pic of the check, then resealed and sent the bill on it’s way. So now, we do virtually no banking by mail. It’s all electronic funds transfer. Oh, and our bank had to eat the $2400. The USPS should be shuttered and the mail service turned over to private enterprise
There was a similar problem here in northern Virginia. Thieves would drive around looking for raised flags for out-going mail on the street-side mailboxes and then check the contents for checks to pay bills. Once they got the check’s account and routing numbers, they’d empty the checking accounts.
We always drop letters containing checks in the slot inside the post office now.