The US postal services have seen a “surge in mail theft and violent crimes,” including a 139% increase in reports of “high-volume mail theft.”
The United States Postal Inspection Service (USPIS) is reportedly busy stepping up its efforts to combat these types of crimes. Scrippsnews says the newly launched Project Safe Delivery comes amid concerns about high levels of crime. According to the USPIS letter, carrier robberies increased by 854% between 2019 and 2023.
In just four years, the letter carrier robberies reportedly increased from 64 to 605 in 2023.
Chief postal inspector Gary Barksdale says the Postal Inspection Service is taking decisive actions to protect letter carriers. “The launch of this webpage signifies our commitment to educating the public about the critical importance of mail security.”
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Online scammers in Australia
While letter mail is on the rise in the US, Australian customers are also warned about online shopping scams.
A report by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) states that scam losses decreased in 2023. This despite reports that the number of phishing attempts increased.
The ACCC’s National Anti-Scam Center losses were down 13% nationally to AUS$2.74 billion.
The National Australia Bank (NAB) says it has also noticed a decrease in customer losses between October and December 2023. This is despite noticing customer reports of scams continuing to grow.
“Many of the themes and trends in the report reflect the experience of our customers who have been scammed or colleagues across the bank who are working every day to stop the crime,” says the NAB.
The bank has taken steps to remove links from text messages to make it “harder for criminals to impersonate bank phone numbers.” Other steps taken include blocking payments to high-risk crypto platforms and introducing payment alerts to the NAB app and online service.
NOW READ: The $2.2 billion heist: Millions of Australians fall victim to card fraud
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About the author
Mia is a multi-award-winning journalist. She has more than 14 years of experience in mainstream media. She's covered many historic moments that happened in Africa and internationally. She has a strong focus on human interest stories, to bring her readers and viewers closer to the topics at hand.
