Sneaky snail mail spam?

Factual Questions
1

Weirdest thing happened today. I got a Christmas card in the mail.

Okay, that’s not weird in and of itself. But there are some weird things about this:

1 - The return address on the envelope indicates that the card is from a Teresa Wxxxxxx (leaving out the last name here) in Austin, Indiana. I don’t know a Teresa Wxxxxxx. The only person I know in Indiana is a 15-year-old online gaming partner named Alexa, and she doesn’t know my mailing address (and I don’t even know what city she lives in.)

2 - The postmark is from Louisville, Kentucky. What, they don’t have post offices in Indiana?

3 - The actual card is signed “Mickey”, not “Teresa”. I’ve only known two Mickeys in my entire life - a woman I worked with for 4 months about 18 years ago. And she was close to retiring - I would be surprised if she was still alive now (she was a very heavy smoker). And besides, there is absolutely no reason she would be sending me a Christmas card. The other Mickey actually spells her name “Mickee”, she lives here in the same town with me, and I see her weekly. She never misspells her own name.

4 - The stamp on the envelope is weird. The picture appears to be of firefighters raising a flag at the WTC. The text on the stamp says “Heroes”, “USA” and “2001”. The weird part is that there is no denomination on the stamp - it just says “First Class” along the left edge, and has a “+” symbol under the last S in “Class”.

5 - the person has spelled my name incorrectly, writing “Rick” instead of “Rik”. I have used the “Rik” spelling for 23 or 24 years.

There is no handwritten message inside the card. The sender just wrote “Hi Rick” above the preprinted message, and “Love, Mickey” after the preprinted message.

So I’m wondering if this might be some kind of “snail mail” spam, sent by somebody who hopes I will write to the return address to ask “who are you?” so that they can verify that my snail mail address is correct. I’ve seen plenty of e-mail spam that uses that trick.

2

Seems pretty darn unlikely. Have you googled the address to see if you can find the name of the actual resident?

3

Are you sure it’s not from a company you did business with once.

4

Re #4, some stamps do not have the denomination on them: http://shop.usps.com/cgi-bin/vsbv/postal_store_non_ssl/display_products/productDetail.jsp?OID=4848817 That way the post office can continue selling them after a rate change.

5

I’ll give that a try.

The envelope is hand addressed, and bears no sign of company logos.

6

I can’t imagine it would be the same as with spam, it seems it would be expensive and pointless to do with regular mail. They only do it with email to make sure that it is indeed a valid address. they already know SOMEONE lives at your address and I think there is probibly alot better ways of finding out if its you besides sending you a suspicious christmas card and hopeing you mail them back.

Austin is only about an hour away from Louisville, so it isnt that weird, maybe it was dropped off on the way to work or while shopping or something.

Do you know if Alexa is your friend’s real name? My guess is that she may have sent it, and Teresa is her mother. Assuming you told her your real name, she may have thought you typo’ed it and it is Rick not Rik. It isen’t that difficult to get someone’s address over the internet if you know their name and the general area where they live, expecially if they have an uncommon last name.

Of course, this does not explain the short message, or why she would use her mom’s name in the return address not hers. But then, 15 year old girls are weird.

I would ask her about it (and your friend Mickee just in case) and if neither of them sent it then i would send a letter to them asking who it was. Whats the worst that can happen? they send you more snail-mail spam? easy enough to throw it out with the rest of it you get.

7

It could be argued that you are the one spelling your name incorrectly :wink:

Anyway, perhaps it’s someone who was trying to find another Rick?

8

I don’t think so. The non-denominated stamps don’t change denomination (stamp futures?) do they? I think they have the A, B, C, D, etc. stamps printed up prior to a rate change when they’re not exactly sure what rate will be approved. As soon as it is approved, they can start selling stamps at the new rate quickly.

9

Alexa always types my name “Rik” when she’s tlaking to me on the Web, so I doubt she’d change it on a Christmas card.

I did some Googling on the address, and couldn’t find a Teresa Wxxxxxx in Austin. That doesn’t mean much - the name on the lease/mortgage/phone# might be in a husband’s/father’s name. Found nothing at the specific address, though one search did turn up an apartment building a couple blocks away from the return address.

I have thought of another possibility - this card might be from my ex-girlfriend. My ex has serious mental problems - bipolar disorder and borderline personality disorder - and has a history of moving from town to town. So I’m searching my home for a letter she wrote to me some months ago so I can compare the handwriting.

Thanks for the suggestions :slight_smile:

10

… and she told me once that she likes to go to a new town and use a different name so that nobody can find her. Forgot to mention that part.

11

Would she change her name from the time she signed the card, to the time she put the return address on the envelope? That’s pretty unstable

12

I dunno. Maybe the return address is somebody who’s holding her mail for her. But again, it would be odd for her to spell my name incorrectly. She never did that when I knew her. But with her, it’s hard to say what she’ll do.

13

I’d venture that the card was intended for someone else named Rick (who spells his name right ;)). Addresses get screwed up all the time.
A lot of people use nicknames not related to their real name.
But I do hope it’s more a mystery than that.
Peace,
mangeorge

14

Wait! I pay just about everything online with Quicken, so I have very little use of stamps. Does this mean my generic, non-denomination first class stamps will always work after a postage hike?

15

Balthisar, no.

16

But she got my last name right… and besides, I’m pretty sure I’m the only person in my town with my name. This isn’t a big city, and there aren’t many people with my last name.

17

The Hero stamp is a stamp that you pay 45 cents for, but is used as a 37 cent first class stamp. The extra cents are given to a charity which I believe is for the families of those killed on September 11, 2001.
There is also a breast cancer stamp that does the same thing.

As far as who sent the card… I dunno. :slight_smile: