Major USPS report indicates that 89% of all reported mail thefts happened within these 5 cities.

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According to a recently released audit report on the U.S. Postal Service’s Response to Mail Theft the USPS inspector general found “that from March 2020 through February 2021, the Postal Inspection Service received 299,020 mail theft complaints, which was an increase of 184,564 (+161 %) complaints compared to the same period in the previous year. (As shown in Figure 1) The majority of the FCD complaints for FYs 2021 and 2022 within the five divisions included in our review {Washington, New York, Los Angeles, Houston & Chicago} were related to mail theft. In just those five divisions, with a total of 165,316 mail theft complaints for that period, mail theft complaints comprised about 89% of the 186,753 total complaints received during FYs 2021 and 2022.” However the USPS goes on to admit that they can only record official mail theft complaints if they have been specifically tied to a USPS tracking number, meaning the ACTUAL number of reported mail thefts may be significantly higher.

Mail theft can happen in a variety of ways, from simply fishing mail out of unlocked receptacles, to the notorious porch pirates, and all the way up to the smash and grabbers who break into sub-standard “locking mailboxes” which only offer the illusion of security while having less sturdiness than a gum-ball machine. The criminals who perpetrate these crimes run the gamut from everyday opportunistic thieves to sophisticated scammers who can destroy your credit for years to come.

It seems that the primary goal of many mail thieves is the old tried and true identity theft, which they use to commit fraud with the information they can gleam from the mail they steal which can range from: Your name, address, social security number, phone number, email address, to your credit card and bank account information. Even more disturbingly in November 2022, Axios reported a significant increase in check thefts, with stolen checks being sold online for as much as $650. But worst of all, these crooks regularly use your confidential data to go on to open credit cards or loans in your name. They may even trade your identity with other scammers on the dark web or other black markets to more sophisticated crime syndicates that may end up using your information to commit additional crimes that could cause you headaches for the rest of your life.