Wednesday, September 17, 2008, 9:32:52 AM, you wrote: >> As a side note, but an important ond, DO NOT PUT YOUR MAIL IN A BOX IN >> FRONT OF YOUR HOUSE for the letter carrier to pick up. Your mail can >> be taken by a crook and your identity and/or money stolen.
> You mean your own postbox or ...? Yes. In many parts of the US (maybe most) you can leave outgoing mail in your mailbox. The real problem is when it is one of the very common mailboxes on a post next to the street or highway. The letter carrier comes by in a little vehicle (sort of a small panel truck, usually) and if the red flag is up, meaning you have outgoing mail, they stop and get it, even if they're not delivering any to you that day. > The only way to send mail here is to > drop it either in a yellow postbox (there's enough of them around the > city), or to drop it off directly at post. The mailboxes on houses are > all locked, so the postman can drop the mail in, but it's hard to get > out without the key (assuming the owner didn't leave it unlocked, > which usually isn't the case). Some apartments or condominium complexes have those, but they also usually have a locked box that you can drop things in. >> I know. >> They took outgoing mail containing five checks on two banks. > Checks? How long ago was this? Three years. My wife handles the money, and she now pays almost everything electronically, except for a couple that won't handle that. Those get dropped at the post office. The criminals drive around in a van, and if they see the flag up, the grab the mail, and drive on to the next one with flag up. While one person drives, one rides on the passenger side and does the grabbing mail and putting flag down, and one or two others are in back with liquid that removes the ink from the checks. I saw the checks when they came back and it was almost impossible to tell something else was ever written on them. Then they make a fake drivers license or other ID with their picture but my information. They have all the equipment in the van. Then they write the checks for an amount that in each case is slightly smaller than the original amount it was written for, to make sure it won't bounce. When they write the check they cross out the phone number on it and write in a "new phone number" that is a phony, so that if there is any problem, the merchant won't call me, so I won't be tipped off to a problem. The first I knew of a problem was when I got an overdue credit card bill. She ALWAYS pays ALL bills within a week of receiving them, so knew there was a problem. Anyway, the crooks ultimately got caught, the banks ultimately put the money back in our accounts, and all was well. A hard lesson learned. Also, the credit card and other companies each removed any "overdue charges" from the accounts and our credit record was made clean. But it was a VERY time consuming thing to do all of that. I spent 25 to 30 daytime hours on it over a ten day period. So, sorry if this is too long or too off topic. I assume that there are conditions in many places where crooks could do the same thing. Oh, yes, the stuff they buy is pawned and they get money to buy drugs. dan -- The road goes on forever and the party never ends. REK, Jr. Dan Lester, Boise, ID ________________________________________________ Current version is 4.0.24.0 | 'Using TBUDL' information: http://www.silverstones.com/thebat/TBUDLInfo.html
