Now that USPS is taking electronic signatures when they make deliveries, the more devious carriers have already found a way to cheat the system.

My spouse came in Tuesday evening and asked if I had signed for a package. I told him that I hadn't even opened the front door that day. (I hadn't.) Not only that, but the doorbell didn't ring, and the dog hadn't alerted me to anyone at the door. He showed me a text from USPS saying that a package had been delivered and that I had signed for it. Fortunately, the package was in the mailbox, so at least it hadn't been stolen. But since when are packages that have been signed for found in a mailbox at the curb?

I posted something about this on a neighborhood social media site. Someone suggested that I call the postmaster and gave a phone number.

I couldn't get the postmaster on the phone, so I went to the post office to file a complaint. When I approached the postal worker in the office, I asked to see the signature associated with the delivery. They actually had one, and it looked like mine. The printed name and address were not mine, though.

The way I see it, the presence of a signature attached to the delivery information is far more disturbing to me than if someone had forged the signature. What it means is that they are using images from previously collected signatures and associating them with current deliveries. It's a MAJOR security flaw in the USPS delivery status system.

I told my spouse about this. He immediately suggested the same thing I was about to suggest. From now on, when delivery people ask for signatures, we will be including the date with the signature. When doing this, the signature and the date should overlap. This will make it more difficult for someone to remove the date from the signature capture, and this will make any alterations more evident.

Another form of mail fraud we’ve seen: Often, the carrier will mark something as delivered before they’ve even left the post office. Look for this!

One way you can help to keep postal carriers honest is to go to USPS.com and sign up for Informed Delivery. This is on the Track & Manage menu tab on their site. They can send you images of all of the letter-type mail you will be receiving each day, plus you can get texts to notify you when a package has been delivered. I doubt it impinges on your privacy any more than it does already. They’re probably capturing images of your mail already anyway, knowing the government. (And that’s a whole ‘nother topic!)

https://informeddelivery.usps.com/box/pages/intro/start.action