Mail theft!

Since you have has problems in the past, here are 3 lesser known agencies.

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A relative fell prey to a phone scam that involved them buying Target, Amazon and Apple gift cards and transferring the numbers and such to the caller so that the IRS wouldn’t arrest them for something or other (tax fraud and kiddie pr0n, IIRC.)

They came to me mid-freak and we quickly reported the cards to the stores.

Amazon: Their system had automatically cancelled the transaction - no loss.

Target: Already redeemed, ‘nothing we can do.’

Apple: Scammer had redeemed one, agent cancelled another, and actually had a live virtual tussle with the scammer for control of the third (while we were on the phone.) Agent’s comment: ‘Haven’t seen that in a while, these guys are good.’

Called the cops who came out within an hour and took a report, advising us not to expect any further action on their part.

Scammers netted ~$2500.

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If anyone ever asks me for money, especially as some gov official of some kind, I will look up the contact info to that office and call or visit them directly. Nobody who contacts me is ever getting anything, ever. If a family member needs help, they’re seeing me in person before they get any loan or anything. It’s too easy to spoof Caller-ID and use AI to deepfake someone else’s voice nowadays. Lots of people falling prey to scams of a family member calling them and desperately needing money sent to a bank account for some crazy emergency or another. Nope, faked voice and spoofed caller ID are super simple nowadays, don’t do it, call them back, or see them in person or have a pre-established secret code word or phrase to verify 100% it is who they claim to be. Never give money to anyone who contacts you for any reason from any number even if you know them personally as family or your BFF and you know it’s their number and their voice, etc. Let the caller “send you to jail” or whatever they are threatening…tell them you’ll look up contact info for the official office, or have a lawyer do it, or whatever You can even ask for them, but you have to initiate the contact. Never, never, never believe someone who contacts you.

Thats my 2¢

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Welcome to the Forums. Lots of great people here (unlike the trolls on FB) and great info.

If you haven’t already, I suggest you sign up for Informed Delivery from the USPS. You will get an email every day with pictures of the mail that is going to be delivered that day. That will give you a heads up on what you’re getting and know if anything is missing.

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Thanks for the warm welcome! Yes, I do have informed delivery, The CC was in a plain white envelope which is why I didn’t notice it. Another piece of mail was an update from the IRS, i figured it wouldn’t have any PII on it. A couple days after this my wife received the same notice from the IRS which had my full SSN on it! I don’t understand why they add this to an informational mailing, they know my SSN, I know it, why put it on the mailing at all? At least the whole number, crazy. Like I said before, I’ve had my SSN stolen in the past so i lock all 3 bureaus (and i even took the advice of @StevenA and locked a few others). I haven’t seen anything try to hit my credit, yet, maybe I’ll get lucky on that one.

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That they got your SSN in another piece of mail could explain how they were able to activate the credit card.

I’m glad you have your credit locked down and hope the IRS sloppiness doesn’t result in more issues. Good luck.

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Always report ia postal crime to the USPS, and any other crime to the local police.
Always list the USPS Inspection report number and/or local police report number in the header of all threads about any crime.
Often someone will later add a piece of evidence later that can convict the criminal, and they use that thread containing the report numbers to automate that information going directly to the detective assigned. Without that report number in the header , it takes more time, less likely not get to the detective or inspector assigned. Using the report number in the thread automates that video, evidence being aggregated, used later if they catch the person doing it again.

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Not sure if this has been mentioned already, but because this happened (and can happen again) I would seriously consider trying to put another Wyze cam iNSIDE the mailbox (I’ve seen this done). You can snake the wire somehow to power and probably would get a much clearer look at their face.

The downside is if they see it and rip out and steal the camera, you’d probably never see that video.

It might be better to use one of the telephoto lens cameras watching the mailbox.

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One way to eliminate this from happening again is to take your mail out of the mail box as soon as you get home from work or have someone get it for you if you work a late shift.

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I’ve seen many people shove these in the back of their mailbox, I highly doubt they’d see it. If you have cam plus and motion detection with a wifi signal it’ll update to the cloud anyway with motion detection.

Sadly, in my experience, if the camera is disconnected in the middle of a motion event being uploaded to the cloud (before the event stops on it’s own), the entire event gives an error and is inaccessible/unviewable. I have purposely tried it with a few different camera models a while ago. I haven’t tried recently though, and I know Wyze has made a lot of updates since I last tried this, so maybe it’s different now. I would love to have someone try instigating a cloud event, unplug the camera while motion is still actively recording and then see if the cloud event is accessible. It didn’t used to be…it would give an error in the past. Hopefully it is now. Additionally, the camera saves a whole minute of video in it’s RAM before it records to the SD card, so if someone kills the power to the camera, it won’t record anything for the current minute of video (ie: if unplugged at 59 seconds into the minute, it won’t record any of the last 59 seconds to the SD card because that video was still in the RAM).

I think a good solution is to have one in the mailbox for a GOOD close up view, while still keeping one farther back watching everything. Then it’s definitely great to have one in the mailbox. There are good ways to secure it there too. So upon further thought, I agree that it is still a good suggestion. :+1:

I mean depending on how far you want to go with this… you can enclose the Cam in the mailbox into a clear acrylic case and screw it to the mailbox, ain’t nobody getting that out of the then. Yes they can put their hand over it etc but I doubt most people are expecting the camera to be there in the first place!

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I installed a Wyze V2 wifi contact inside my plastic mailbox. Been there over a year in up-state NY weather on original batteries. Wyze security system chimes when mailbox is opened for delivery or potential theft. Works better than or in unison with a camera because it’s more preventative than after-the-factish.

I recently reported a recurring issue where the courier was delivering opened and empty AMEX rebate cards. (like literally the envelopes were ripped in half and delivered empty before scanning it for delivery tracking) I received an automated “thank you for your inquiry” email from the local branch, and then a “how did we do? survey” email from the fraud unit. Told them how they did. I have had no other response. About what I expected.

Ever thinking of going down to the post office rather than emailing them? Going in person is going to help a lot more, you can talk to the supervisor if you suspect a carrier is doing it or they can try to track where the fraud is occuring.

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How are they all getting into LOCKED mailboxes so easily?

Well the first guy looks like he just took the excess mail that doesn’t fit into the box, which really is the mail carrier’s fault for leaving it there and should be brought up to the post office immediately. I can’t tell if the second person is the same as the first one, but in any event, if people notice that this is happening consistently at a certain time I would try to catch them in the act immediately. You can turn notifications on for these cams so even if you have to stay up late, run outside and see if you can track down if they live in the area, or get a license plate and call the police immediately. The video can help back it up then!

But they are in compliance with outdated CDC mask requirements, so while they’re acting antisocially by stealing mail, they’re also showing concern for others.

We have many caring midnight ramblers in our neighborhood. :wink:

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