Simple Things To Do To Protect Your Mail From Thieves

Identity theft is one of the fastest growing crimes in the United States. Even the United States Post Office does acknowledge that a victim’s mail is involved in most of them. It is not a coincidence, that as cases of identity theft continue to climb so do incidence of stolen mail.

Mail theft in the paradisal state of Hawaii who ranks No. 15 in the nation for identity theft complaints is more out of control at residential mailboxes if compared to commercial mailboxes. It would of course be a hard fact to deny, seeing that Hawaii has seen a 1,403% increase in stolen mail in the last few years.

To prevent your mail from being handed to identity thief, there are precautions you need to take. Here are some simple things that you can do to protect your mail from thieves:

1. Never Send Cash or Coins in the Mail. Doing so is just asking for trouble. Instead, send checks or money orders and wrap them in an additional paper inside a security envelope.

2. Promptly Remove Your Mail after Delivery. If this is not possible, consider purchasing a locking mailbox that allows the postal carrier to deliver the mail, but prohibits the mail bearing your address, phone and house numbers from being removed without a key or combination.

3. Select a Reliable Friend to Depend on. In case you are always out of town, pick a friend that you can rely on to pick up your mail. 25% of all identity thieves are someone that victims know, therefore you need to carefully select who you can trust.

4. Never Send Mail by Placing it in Your Mailbox for the Carrier to Pick up When They Deliver. Always deposit your mail in a mail slot at your local post office, or hand it to your letter carrier. Thieves drive around your neighborhood looking for those address plagues and mailboxes with the little red flag up, obviously indicating that there is outgoing mail.