A Long PSA

Momma had something terrible happen

and she wanted to share it as a PSA to

hopefully send out awareness for

others to be alert in case they ever need to be.

I'm turning it over to Momma now.

***

Several weeks ago, my Father passed away.

We did a nice long obituary for him

as a way to honor his life.

It caught the attention, we believe of

many, some with nefarious intentions.

One such intention entailed someone evil

putting in a change of address

in my Father's name with the USPS.

We came to find out it's a very easy thing

to do. You simply pick up a COA form

fill it out and drop it in the mail.

No checking.

No verification.

No ID required.
Or, you set up an online USPS account
in a person's name and
then send their mail to wherever
you chose.

Thankfully before it could be fully

implemented the mail carrier asked 

my Mother if she had forwarded my Dad's mail

for any reason? She thought it was odd.

That was when we knew something

was way off. It took less than a day for it to be

stopped but it could have been very hurtful

on a number of fronts.

The change of address was to a empty address

in a very bad section of the town we live in.

It was also only set up to run on a 

one month basis.

I guess hoping you'd never notice

during your time of grief and chaos.

The postal inspectors have the information

and we hope that they can

catch the people who are responsible, but I feel 

like the chances are very very low.

What I find so awful is how easy it is to do this.

Anyone could easily become a victim to this,

at any time.

There is no way to protect yourself from

this "victimless" crime.

It is a federal offense to commit mail fraud.

But I only bring this up because I think,

very strongly it was from the obituary placed.

That is something anyone can control at the time

of need.

I will never do that again, and I would 

be very careful about what information

was listed in the obituary if it was someone's

wish to have it recorded.

***

In addition to the mail fraud, the people
who perpetrated this also gained access
to his entire ID.
So with that they began opening up
credit cards accounts in his name.
Now we have Identity Theft on
top of Mail Fraud.

***

It's awful that at at time of great sorrow

and confusion someone so evil would prey upon

an 80+ widow. But, my conclusion

has always been that society does prey upon

the weak.

The elderly, children and animals.

***

You can never be too careful,

and even when careful, you can be harmed.

***

My family is indebted to the sharp eye

of our mail carrier who truly was a hero

for us.

So the USPS may have a policy that sucks,

but there are people within the organization

that are heros!

Thank you Kelly!!!

***
Thank you too, all who reached out,
publically and privately.
It meant a great deal to hear
from so many.