Watching for scams

[Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984]

Like Spider-Man, ya gotta sense these things out.  Ages ago, I read about the most prevalent scams on the FBI website. From that day forward, I never put my outgoing mail into my mailbox with the flag up.  

 

My practice wife got hit by the “I’ll send you a check for more , send me the difference” scam.

 

i’ve been Searching for an apartment, one I found is very likely a scam, another is highly suspect.

 

i am selling stuff. One potential buyer on Facebook, a few years ago she changed her name to Mrss. No native speaker of English would use two s. Also there is a very small number of messages and most are in Arabic. Then she asked for a discount because she is marrying. Wait a f***** minute, using Mrss and she is getting married, b****, f her.

 

then there are apartment rentals where the lessor does not own the apartment, I have seen a few of those.

 

[Alpo]

4 hours ago, Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984 said:

From that day forward, I never put my outgoing mail into my mailbox with the flag up.

I don't think doing that would help. At least around here, the mailman does not seem to know what that red flag means.

 

Thursday of last week, at 3 in the afternoon, I found a piece of mail in my box. My address, but I had never heard of the woman it was addressed to.

 

My father bought this house when it was built. The only people that have ever lived in this house is my family.

 

So I did what I had learned was the correct procedure in that case. I drew a line through the address on the envelope. Next to it I wrote NOT KNOWN AT THIS ADDRESS. I then stuck the envelope back in the mailbox and raised the flag.

 

That would be about 3:30 Thursday afternoon.

 

The mailman picked up the envelope Monday afternoon about 2:30.

 

The envelope sat in my mailbox for approximately 95 hours, with the red flag raised, saying OUTGOING MAIL IN HERE.

 

I can see that if I have no incoming mail, there would be no reason for the mailman to stop and look in my box.

 

Except for that damn red flag that's sticking up telling him to stop and look in the box.

 

Maybe he needs remedial mailman training.

[Fence Cutter]

1 hour ago, Alpo said:

 

That would be about 3:30 Thursday afternoon.

 

The mailman picked up the envelope Monday afternoon about 2:30.

 

The envelope sat in my mailbox for approximately 95 hours, with the red flag raised, saying OUTGOING MAIL IN HERE.

 

I can see that if I have no incoming mail, there would be no reason for the mailman to stop and look in my box.

 

 

They are not required to pick up your mail .......

 

 “Since 1929, postal policy has required a city delivery carrier to collect mail from a mailbox on the house only when he/she has mail to deliver to that box."

 

[Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984]

1 hour ago, Alpo said:

I don't think doing that would help. At least around here, the mailman does not seem to know what that red flag means.

 

 

You missed the point. Since outgoing mail usually had checks in it, the scam was to steal the mail and change checks to pay to the scammers.

[Cat Brules]

While it’s GOOD for US to hear anecdotal information like this, it does nothing to solve the problem that you’re having with your mail carrier.  It’s serious, because it exposes your outgoing mail to theft, which is a big problem. 

 

My advice to you (this is what I’ve had to do several times over the years here) is to contact in person, the Manager of the USPS office near you who handles the mail carriers.  Complain to THAT facility manager, in person.  The only way to deal with those USPS Managers is to instill the understanding that the carrier be INDIVIDUALLY counseled, and that the “no-pickup” situation never happens again.  Understand that being nice to USPS when there’s an ongoing issue generally will not get you anywhere.....at least here in the rural delivery area that I live .

 

 There are mail theft rings around here and in town who steal outgoing and delivered mail from residences (mainly) and business ma boxes.  The thieves are difficult to catch, because police do not do real in-the-field police work; they stay near the coffee pot, instead.  One person named Brianna Touhy  was caught accidentally during a traffic stop.  As I understand it from my conversation with police, she had in her vehicle, tens of thousands of pieces of mail, most stolen from home mailboxes in rural areas and residential areas in town.  Mail theft is a criminal enterprise; they even physically destroy mailboxes to gain entry.  Ms. Touhy was recently sentenced to 10 years in prison.  She likely will get probation.  The Feds don’t want to get involved with this “small stuff”.  My belief and understanding is that mail theft has become a “cottage industry” and is related peripherally to the local drug culture.

 

my guess is that there are such goings on in many other areas of California and other states.

 

From both our houses, we always deposit outgoing mail at a USPS branch in town, and we pick up delivered mail within an hour or two of delivery.....both to mitigate mail theft.

 

Cat Brules

[Cat Brules]

Oh, btw, if a carrier is delivering to another box next to yours, they better pick up

your mail, period.  It depends on how serious and assertive you are with USPS.  I’ve already had that head-on confrontation three times over the years with the manager of the local USPS delivery facility.   If USPS security won’t go after the thieves, they either pick up every day when the flag is up, regardless, or I start  sending a mass mailing of multiple complaints and hanging prone in the weeds, waiting for the thieves.  I’ve talked to the Sheriff Dept. and they’ve assigned another car to the patrol area my rural area lies within, but won’t do a direct investigation that I’m aware of.  Mail theft is a significant problem.  The USPS Fed clowns don’t get involved.

[Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984]

1 hour ago, Cat Brules said:

Oh, btw, if a carrier is delivering to another box next to yours, they better pick up

your mail, period.  It depends on how serious and assertive you are with USPS.  I’ve already had that head-on confrontation three times over the years with the manager of the local USPS delivery facility.   If USPS security won’t go after the thieves, they either pick up every day when the flag is up, regardless, or I start  sending a mass mailing of multiple complaints and hanging prone in the weeds, waiting for the thieves.  I’ve talked to the Sheriff Dept. and they’ve assigned another car to the patrol area my rural area lies within, but won’t do a direct investigation that I’m aware of.  Mail theft is a significant problem.  The USPS Fed clowns don’t get involved.

Absolutely. In’76 I put mail in my box with the flag up and the carrier did not pick up my mail, I complained to the postmaster and never again had a problem.

[Alpo]

3 hours ago, Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984 said:

You missed the point. Since outgoing mail usually had checks in it, the scam was to steal the mail and change checks to pay to the scammers.

I did not miss the point. I knew exactly what you were talking about. When I have outgoing mail I drive the mile-and-a-half to the post office and mail it from there. I do not put my outgoing mail at the street.

 

But this particular piece of mail - NOT KNOWN AT THIS ADDRESS - if I had taken it to the post office and mailed it there, rooted in one of those big blue and red boxes on the street corner (what you're getting very damn hard to find these days) they would have delivered it back to my house. I have done that before and that is what they did.

 

That is why I put it in the street with the flag up.

 

You missed the point - the mailman drove by it two days in a row.

 

4 hours ago, Fence Cutter said:

 

They are not required to pick up your mail .......

 

 “Since 1929, postal policy has required a city delivery carrier to collect mail from a mailbox on the house only when he/she has mail to deliver to that box."

 

There is a difference between a mailbox on the house, where the mailman has to get out of his truck and walk up to the door, and a mailbox at the street where all he has to do is stop.

 

I just re-read my original post, and while I did not say that my box was at the street, I have never seen a box on the house with a red flag.

[Allie Mo, SASS No. 25217]

13 hours ago, Cat Brules said:

we always deposit outgoing mail at a USPS branch in town, and we pick up delivered mail within an hour or two of delivery.....both to mitigate mail theft.

This is what we do too. I've talked to our carrier.  Hubby has talked to our UPS driver about our carrier. He knows him, as UPS delivers to the PO.

 

Sometimes, it is best to work around than to try to work with them.

 

PS We have a multi-box with an outgoing slot. I still don't trust him. As I indicated,  

[Dustin Checotah]

12 hours ago, Alpo said:

But this particular piece of mail - NOT KNOWN AT THIS ADDRESS - if I had taken it to the post office and mailed it there, rooted in one of those big blue and red boxes on the street corner (what you're getting very damn hard to find these days) they would have delivered it back to my house. I have done that before and that is what they did.

Alpo

If you do put the mail into a collection box make sure you obscure the barcode also. Now a days the mail is read primarily by machines and they will use the barcode. If you obscure the barcode then it might get read by a person and then remedied. One problem is if the mail is just business bulk (Junk mail) then it might just be best to trash it. There is no money in it for the P.O. to try to make it right. 

[bgavin]

I routinely get phone calls where CallerID shows them as "private"
I respect their privacy, so I don't answer the call.

NoMoRobo.Com is free for land lines, and effectively screens out the robot calls.
You hear 1 ring, see "Incoming Call" then it hangs up the call.
Painless.. effective... and free for land lines.
 

[Trailrider #896]

I guess I suffer from acute paranoia, but I generally won't mail out any bill-paying checks in an exterior mail box! The only exception is sometimes if I can drop it in a box outside the major chain grocery store within a couple of hours of the scheduled pickup time.  I won't even drop in the drive-up boxes outside the main post office. Instead, I'll park, go inside and drop it in the slot in the lobby.

 

Oh, BTW, I'm liable to be arrested any minute now by federal police. Why? Because I haven't returned the call made to me by somebody from Social Security.   Also, my computer may be shut down any time now unless I return the call from Microsoft's "office" (somewhere in India, I presume)!

 

While you probably can't classify it as a scam, the one that really irrigates me is the guy that keeps calling on all my phone lines plus my cell phone, trying to get me to let him clean my furnace ducts!  I never go with unsolicited home maintenance calls, so this is a real annoyance!  I'd really like to clean his ducts!  With a high pressure fire hose!

[Matthew Duncan]

On October 5, 2019 at 5:51 AM, Cat Brules said:

...police do not do real in-the-field police work; they stay near the coffee pot, instead...

 

I read your comment as sincere and thereby insulting.  

[Krazy Kajun]

8 hours ago, bgavin said:

I routinely get phone calls where CallerID shows them as "private"
I respect their privacy, so I don't answer the call.

NoMoRobo.Com is free for land lines, and effectively screens out the robot calls.
You hear 1 ring, see "Incoming Call" then it hangs up the call.
Painless.. effective... and free for land lines.
 

Only works for VOIP (internet routed calls) phone lines.  This product will NOT work for phone calls routed through normal copper phone lines (Non DSL).

 

Kajun

[bgavin]

I'm VOIP on Comcast.
It screens a huge number of robo calls that would otherwise annoy hell out of me.

[Ramblin Gambler]

While we're on the postal derail, I had a house for a while that I couldn't sell, so I used it as a weekend getaway.  I got a nastygram from my postal carrier saying that I can't just put the junk mail back in the box with the flag up.  I was flabbergasted that she didn't realize I wasn't living there full time.  Apparently neighborhood kids were riding by lifting the flags (I know I did that a few hundred times when I was a kid).  I can't remember if I caught her on a saturday delivery or stuck a note in the box, but boy was she worked up over that flag. 

 

My social security number has also been suspended.  Next time someone who doesn't need it asks for it, I'm going to let them know.  I'm fascinated by scams.  I often play with them to waste their time and try to figure out what the scam is.  I'm surprised at how hard it is to get to that point.  I mean, if you're trying to scam me and hang up before I can even figure out what your scam was, you're not very good at it. 

[Allie Mo, SASS No. 25217]

Speaking of scams.  I was laying in bed at 7:15, thinking about getting up and the phone jarringly rang. Arrgh, it was a scam recording with an urgent message about my credit cards. If I pressed nine, I could convert them to zero interest. Then, I hung up. Rule of thumb, if it is too good to be true, it's a scam. BTW I pay my bills by the due date so, I never pay interest.

[Tequila Shooter]

I love getting scammers on the phone, I try to keep them talking for as long as I can.  Recently I got a scam call about paycheck loans, the guy was probably in India and when I couldn't make out his name I started to call him ChaChing.  When he realized that I was just playing with him he hung up.  I decided that I really needed to hear about those loans so I called him back, and called him back, and again and again.  Eventually they blocked my number, I guess they got the hint.  The things I do when I'm bored.  

[Ramblin Gambler]

On 10/7/2019 at 12:18 PM, Allie Mo, SASS No. 25217 said:

Rule of thumb, if it is too good to be true, it's a scam.

 

Not saying I disagree with ya, but I'm still waiting for my wife to spring whatever scam she's runnin on me.