COLORADO SPRINGS — This weekend federal investigators are asking you to take some time to sign-up for free informed delivery mail service so you can keep an eye on what is arriving to your mailbox. Investigators with the U.S. Postal Inspection Service fear in the coming days people may have crucial pieces of mail stolen and won't even know it.
"I think it would be naive to say that we wouldn't see some type of uptick in attempted mail theft activity related to these stimulus checks that are about to come out," said U.S. Postal Inspector Eric Manuel.
Manuel and his colleagues spend their days going after the thieves who are stealing mail looking to find your personal information to steal identities and ultimately your money.
"In Colorado in my experience it is often connected to drug users and it's connected to auto theft and other types of crime," said Manuel.
In 2019, U.S. Postal Inspectors made 5,759 arrests and they want you to sign-up for informed delivery so you can get notifications for what's coming to your mailbox to stay a step ahead of the thieves. Especially if you're waiting on a COVID-19 paper stimulus check, or other mail you can't do without.
Sign-up for informed delivery here:
https://informeddelivery.usps.com/box/pages/intro/start.action
"I can tell you this," said Manuel. "They haven't been mailed out yet, but when they hit the mail if you have an active informed delivery account you'll have an idea of exactly which day you'll want to go check your mailbox."
Here are a few ways you can get in touch with U.S. Postal Inspectors:
24/7 hotline: 1-877-876-2455
https://www.uspis.gov/coronavirus/
They ask that you report any suspicious activity to them.
A few other pieces of advice, they say it's important to keep in mind when your mail is delivered during the day because often it's around the same time and you can work with neighbors to make sure your mail is getting picked up and not sitting in your mailbox for long periods of time where it could be targeted by those thieves.
Federal investigators say if you believe you have information about a crime you should contact both the U.S. Postal Inspection Service and local law enforcement.
