Actually, I don’t believe that I’ve committed mail fraud. I haven’t defrauded anyone out of anything, in fact, I’ve helped to alert a company to fraud. MAYBE someone could get me for tampering with the mail. Maybe. But they’d have to prove that I go by Lynn Bodoni online, if they wanted to use this thread as evidence, and that would be rather difficult. They’d also have to prove that I opened the mail deliberately, instead of just bringing in everything and opening it all in one go, as many people do. I’m not advocating that anyone else do what I did, either.
I’ve seen a woman hanging out in the neighbors’ yard, don’t know if she’s Jane or not, but I’m pretty sure that she doesn’t live there. Occasionally she comes into my yard and looks at the flowers in our flowerbox next to the mailbox…or that’s what she does when I open the door, anyway. So I think that I’m justified in suspecting that my mailbox is possibly being used as a drop box. My husband usually brings in the mail, and he usually does so in the early evening. I’ve just been going out in the daytime, because of doctor’s appointments this week, and I’ve checked the mail earlier than it usually gets checked.
FWIW, I have several times in the past couple of years received mail addressed elsewhere and opened it before I realized it wasn’t for me. I take such mail to the local PO, where I am always thanked for my help it getting it to the right addressee - I have never been taken to task for having accidentally opened it.
Given that last piece of info, you might be wise to check your credit report and bank statements, etc. The same person could be using more than just your address. Have you noticed any missing bills- especially credit card ones? And of course there’s always those credit card offers that come in…all ya have to do is call and you’re pre-approved…
Well, first step is to install a mailbox with a lock; this is really important if you think someone is going through your mail.
If all you did was open two pieces, reseal them and write “not at this address” and put them back for the mail carrier. Many people open all the mail they receive and then go back and read each of the opened items, so two open items are not really indicative of a big crime. Don’t destroy any mail. Don’t open any more. I would also call the post office and tell them that mail is being delivered to someone who has never lived in the house.
Next, tell anyone at that house to go through their credit report. Make sure that this person’s identity is not getting confused with theirs.
I picked up my mail the other day, and going through the normal things I had a note from the gas company. I opened it and it was a disconnect notice!?! I knew I wasn’t behind, in fact I had just paid on-line a day or so before. Quick look, and oops… the name isn’t mine, nor is the address. It was from a couple of houses down the street. I didn’t want’ them to not get the notice, but I also didn’t want them to know that I knew they were late with their bill… so I did the only mature thing I could think of… I waited until really late at night and snuck it into their mail box.
IANAL and my legal research skills are limited but I tried to search the US code and all I found were statements that the mailbox you buy and put in front of your house really belongs to the postal service. Removing mail from a postal service container that isn’t assigned to you is a violation of federal law. The “suggestions” on their website are helpful but I still don’t buy that I have any legal obligation to do anything with mail that the post office puts in my box that I shouldn’t have received.
I would be conscerned that this “Jane” is using your information to open credit cards in her name with your data. For instance, Jane is the name but it’s your SS# and credit. Credit cards typically wait 90 days to report delinquent accounts to the credit agency. Though it could be shorter now with the way things are.
I would call the number and make darn well sure it’s not you on those bills. Perhaps you could verify with the bank that handles “Toys R Us” that it is NOT your SS# on the account.
Next time you get the bill, just mark it “return to sender / no such person at address” and leave it at that.
It might be interesting to put a hold on your mail for a month, and pay any bills that come via mail, over the internet, so you won’t be late. Then collect your mail and see what’s in it.
In our town, many of the streets have numerical names, and progress from north to south as Street and Terrace. That is, 100th Street is followed by 100th Terrace, and then by 101st Street.
We’ve lived in our house for 17 years. Our address is something similar to “1234 121st Terrace”. On the main street just up the block from us is a liquor store at “1234 121st Street”.
About once every two months, I get a piece of mail for the liquor store. Being the dutiful citizen that I am, I take it up to them.
Not once in the 17 years that we have lived in the house has anyone from the liquor store brought any mail to me. Not once has anyone at the liquor store said, “Hey … we have something for you, too” when I have brought their mail to them. Not once have we ever gotten a piece of mail with our address circled and a “Not at this address” written on it.
Now, any mathematical dopers want to take a stab on the odds that a mistake that is made in one direction 5-6 times a year has never been made in the other direction?
My mother’s maiden name is the same as one of my cousin’s (her niece?) married name. Her and her husband are kinda the black sheep of the family (pulled alot of shit when Grandma died and her will was read). They are not good with money. Mom’s always getting her bills (cousin’s name, Mom’s address). For the past week she’s been playing phone tag with one of the local hospitals over an unpaid bill regarding my cousin’s daughter (my cousin once removed?).
Regardless of what is going on in this case, everyone should have a mailbox that locks. You don’t want to leave yourself open to people who can take things out that have been delivered to you. Like pieces of mail with your personal info, account numbers, etc. Or where the letter carrier would take your outgoing mail (like checks for bills you are paying) to mail for you.
I live in an apartment and some idiot month after month puts their outgoing mail on top of the built-in mail boxes for the letter carrier to take to the post office. Besides someone having the ability to take the mail, if it’s windy, rainy, etc., they can blow all over the place as the mailboxes are in the wall outside of the entrance.
Account numbers can be used and checks can be “washed” and re-written. Don’t make identity theft easy for someone.
When we moved into this house (1987), mail for the next to last resident was still coming–and he was dead!* :eek: We got mail for him for several years, until I started writing “deceased” on the envelopes. Oddly enough, we bought the house from people who had lived there for at least 5 years.
I doubt highly that the Feds are gonna come after you for mail fraud etc. I would be suspicious about identity theft, though, so check your accounts and credit rating and get a locking mail box.
*he hanged himself in the garage, but that’s another story.
How does locking your box work, anyways? In my mind I always assumed it had a slot to let mail in, but had to be unlocked to get anything out. But I don’t know how many times I’ve gotten mail that would be too big to fit in such a slot. I live far enough from the post office that having to go there twice a week or more would be quite difficult. I might as well just have a PO box, then.
And it’s not like most of that mail is worth getting, anyways. It’s usually some sort of catalog (which has an online version) or an ad. But occasionally it’s something important. But how would I know that before taking the 30 minute trip to the post office?
The only way I can see this plan working is if the mail carrier has a key to the box. But if everyone had a box, that would be a lot of keys. Mail service is slow enough as it is.
I occasionally get invoices from a medical imaging company not too far from here addressed to a total stranger. The first two times I phoned the payee and they said not to worry about it; they would correct the mistake. They didn’t.
Since then I just toss the bills, which still come in, without opening them.
Yadda yadda, Postmaster!!! You’ll never take me alive!!!
Our mailbox is a decorative one given to us when we got married*, and it has a locking door with a slot. We can’t find the key, though, so it remains unlocked. Most items we get in the mail would fit through the slot pretty easily, but like BigT suggests, some likely would not. Since we leave it unlocked we haven’t found out what would happen.
We could certainly take steps to make it lockable, but I’m not sure we want to.
We got married eight years ago, and until three months ago lived in an apartment. We’re finally actually able to put this wedding present to use. It’s a completely legit Postmaster General approved box with some nice artwork painted on it.
We get a lot of mail addressed to a number of probable illegals who lived here before us (judging by the fake documents they left tucked in various nooks). They constantly open new cell phone and car insurance accounts using our address. I just write “not at this address” and send them back. We have a locked mailbox.
Me too. I had an ongoing “feud” of sorts with the post office who kept sending me this one letter over and over. They ignored the “Not at this address” and they ignored the “adrdressee unknown - return to sender”. The fourth time it got delivered, I looked up the guy’s address and wrote the new address on the envelope. It got delivered to me a 5th time with “Stamp?” written on it. I wrote “No.” and dropped it back in the mail box.
It came to me a sixth time and by then my experiment to see how long it took before it was returned to sender had become boring, so I put duct tape over the address.
I have to admit I was miffed that they returned it to me for a stamp. I was never the sender of this thing. It’s not my responsibility. The post office was delivering it over and over, if the cost of postage was such a huge issue, they could have sent it back to the sender the first time, rather than make six stamps worth of deliveries to the wrong address. Assholes.
I always wonder if it got returned to the sender and if the sender got a chuckle out of the long dialog written out between me and the post office.
Usually you get a postcard from the post office that says you have an oversized delivery and they’ll hold it at the nearest post office for you to pick it up.
I order bike stuff over the internet all the time, and any parcel too big to fit in the mailbox gets this treatment.
Swallowed My Cellphone, if you don’t blot out the UPC code thing at the bottom of a letter, there’s an excellent chance that the automatic sorting machine will just spit it right back to you. I can’t explain the handwritten notation asking you for a stamp, though!
Yes, but from muldoonthief’s post, the postal services website specifically says not to muck up the envelope other than writing “not at this address”. Plus, the letter carrier should have seen the “Not At This Address” when looking at the envelope.
ETA: The other weird thing that I kept seeing was other little scribbly things on the envelope each time I got it. Kind of like when you go to the airport and security checks your boarding pass and makes a doodly mark on the bording pass. Someone was making doodly marks on the envelope next to where I wrote “Not at this address”., “No, really. Not at this address.”, and “Addressee unknown - return to sender.”
I realize you shouldn’t have to put up with this crap or expend your time on it, but in future, I would bring it to the attention of the Postmaster at your local Post Office. He/She probably would NOT be amused to learn that his employees were acting like a bunch of idiots.