Is Your Mail Safe?

From GettyImages.com

 

After reading several news stories about identity theft in my area recently, I was reminded that it’s far easier to become a victim of this crime by using traditional (‘snail’) mail than it is by using credit cards to pay for online purchases. Why? Because any fool can pull up to your mailbox, snatch the contents, and be long gone before you know what happened.

All it takes is one time, one piece of mail that contains your credit card number, your bank statement, or anything at all with your social security number on it. After that, you can kiss your credit rating and large portions of your life goodbye. Victims of identity theft almost always end up spending years and tens of thousands of dollars to dig themselves out of the mess created by one low-life thief. What’s worse, anyone convicted of identity theft will likely be out of jail long before the victim has restored his good name and credit.

With all this in mind, I decided to look around at some websites such as Mailbox Ixchange to learn more about sturdy mailboxes and how much it might cost me to install one. I found hundreds of decorative mailboxes but beauty isn’t what I’m going for at all. I want an armored safe style mailbox.

• Collect your mail as quickly as possible after it is delivered to the mailbox.

• Consider investing in one of the Locking Mailboxes. This type of box allows the carrier to put mail in but only you (or someone else with your key) can take it out. Mail slots are even better, as they allow the delivered mail to slide right into your home instead of leaving it out in the open.

• Never put outgoing mail in your mailbox. Using the drop box in front of your local post office is a better option, but the best option is to take your envelopes and packages inside the post office. There have been cases of thieves actually breaking into the drop boxes right outside the post office.

• When you are away from home and can’t collect your mail, be sure to ask the post office to put a hold on  delivery.  Leaving mail in your box is not only a handout to identity thieves, it lets everyone else know that your home is wide open and ready to be picked clean.

While my 40 year old mailbox is dented and dinged, it still holds mail. Replacing something that works just fine is against everything I believe in, but I have to ask myself … does it work fine? With no lock, out there alone beside the road, its mouth flapping open half the time – is my mailbox really a billboard advertising ‘Easy Pickings’?

Is yours?