ORLANDO, Fla. – If your personal information has been hacked, chances are thieves are trying to use that information to track your daily mail deliveries through a U.S. Postal Service system called Informed Delivery.
USPS spokesperson Debra Fetterly said the fraud has nothing to do with hackers infiltrating the system; however, there is evidence it is happening to USPS customers.
“The fraud referred to is a matter of identity theft,” Fetterly said in a statement. “Postal Service customer identities are not compromised by using the Informed Delivery feature.”
Identities of more than two dozen Central Florida residents have been used by impostors to register for the delivery service.
According to the postal service web site, “Participating users can digitally preview their mail through email notification, online dashboard or mobile app. Users also have the ability to interact with digital content, such as special offers and related links, directly from Informed Delivery notifications.”
Adam Levin an online security expert and founder of CyberScout, told "CBS This Morning" the stolen identity information could be on the dark web.
“It’s being collected by companies that collect and sell data,” Levin said. “This kind of information is oftentimes available on social media.”
An estimated 13 million people have already signed up for the service, and the percentage of customers who have been victims of identity theft is unknown.
According to Fetterly, customers have two options available to report a potentially fraudulent Informed Delivery account or block their address: report it online here or call technical support at 1-800-344-7779.
If you think you have been hacked, the best way to outsmart the thieves is to register for the free service using your email.
Signing up is easy. Simply go to informeddelivery.usps.com and follow the prompts for verification. This process provides security measures to keep your mail and physical address private.