4/10/2024 0 Comments Usps mail forward formThe paper form is officially known as PS Form 3575. But USPS relies almost entirely on the system trusting the person signing the paper form, whoever they might be.Īfter filling out this form, there are no guarantees that USPS will check the identity of the person submitting the change of address request. The online form, at least, requires a small payment, which is by no means verification of a person’s identity, but it leaves a digital paper trail that makes it ultimately traceable to someone. Neither online or paper form requires the person to present proof of their identity. The other way - still used by a significant minority of folks - is by filling out the paper form at a local USPS post office. Most people fill out the form online by providing their old and new address, then pay $1.10 for the convenience of speed. USPS processed some 36 million changes of address in 2021. All of this, he says, is because of a simple paper form that gets handed back to the post office without much of a second thought. But by his own admission, the former executive said he did not know it was so easy for someone to maliciously change his address without his consent, let alone open the doors for criminals to raid his accounts or potentially rack up thousands of dollars in fraudulent purchases. The former Microsoft executive, who asked not to be named but agreed to tell his story to TechCrunch, is not naïve to cybersecurity and privacy threats. But while USPS acknowledges there is a problem, it wouldn’t say how it plans to close the loophole that allows fraudsters to cash in on someone else’s identity. What is more baffling is that there seems to be an equally simple fix. A fraudulently filed change of address form can have lasting fallout for the thousands of individuals whose mail is hijacked and rerouted every year, with criminals able to obtain bills, credit cards and other sensitive information that can be used to raid bank accounts or make fraudulent purchases. It’s neither new nor a particularly sophisticated technique, and has long been known to fraudsters and federal investigators. Postal Service processes changes of address. The fraud relies on a simple flaw in how the U.S. That was enough to set in motion a domino effect that upended the life of a former Microsoft executive several states away, as the person who signed the form effectively hijacked the executive’s home address in just a few minutes. The person signed the form, handed it in and walked out. post office and filled out a change of address form, just as tens of millions do each year to route their mail to a new address. Sometime in November, someone walked into a U.S.
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