Peterborough woman warns of a newer kind of 'porch pirate'

Jul. 23—PETERBOROUGH — Someone fraudulently forwarded Lynn Snow's mail to Florida, and now the Peterborough personal trainer is on a mission to prevent this from happening to others.

In a scam that's occurring across the country, Snow said her letters and packages were diverted and a credit card was set up in her name.

The experience has shaken her confidence in the U.S. Postal Service, its policies and its response to such crimes. Her advice to others: Be alert to any disruption in mail service lest fraudulent activity be afoot.

In addition to contacting Peterborough police and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, she has notified U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, whose office also has a report of a similar crime in Goffstown.

The Democratic senator from Madbury promised to look into such schemes.

"I'm concerned by what appears to be mail fraud in Peterborough, which is why I'm reaching out to the United States Postal Service on this matter to both assist those directly impacted and obtain information about the agency's process to ensure it is addressed at its root," Shaheen said in a statement. "If any other Granite Staters have similar experiences, I urge them to contact my office for assistance."

Security 'priority'

Postal Service spokesman Steve Doherty said the organization places a high priority on security, including the 35 million change-of-address requests it receives yearly.

"The rate of suspicious transactions reported by customers is less than 1/10 of 1 percent — and are often related to activity unrelated to criminal compromise," he said in an email. "We are continuously implementing security enhancements, though not seen by the general public, to enhance the security of our change of address process."

However, the Office of Inspector General for the Postal Service issued a "management alert report" on April 12 that said more needs to be done to authenticate change-of-address requests. The report says the number of requests that were confirmed as fraudulent jumped from 8,857 in 2020 to 23,606 last year — a 167 percent increase — and that current identity-verification procedures are "weak."

Members of Congress have complained about this type of fraud, the report notes.

"In November 2021 and January 2022, we received inquiries from the House Committee on Oversight and Reform and congressional offices in DE, IL, and NH, which included customer complaints regarding fraudulent change of address requests," the inspector general's office said in the report. "Further, a postmaster in IL stated that three customers complained that their mail was fraudulently forwarded to addresses in NY — a matter also brought to our attention by a congressional office."

However, in the report's "management's comments" section, Postal Service leaders were characterized as disagreeing with recommendations for strengthening identity-verification processes.

"Management concluded ... millions of customers would be harmed to achieve an incremental risk reduction for several thousand customers."

Scam in Peterborough

Snow said her own misdirected mail problem came to light July 11 when her longtime letter carrier asked her husband, Phil, if she still wanted her mail forwarded. She came to find out that someone had requested her mail be forwarded to an address in Florida from June 23 to July 31.

"I had noticed I wasn't really getting any mail or packages, but I had been distracted and getting ready to go on vacation myself from June 30th to July 9th," she explained.

Snow said the letter carrier gave her the number of a postal inspector, recommended she file a claim and told her someone had recently perpetrated a similar fraud on another Peterborough resident.

Peterborough Police Chief Scott Guinard said Friday that since Snow's case is still under investigation, he couldn't comment beyond saying a detective was working with postal authorities. He wasn't aware of a second, similar case in town, but added that he doesn't routinely read all pending cases.

Snow said postal authorities refused to tell her the address to which her mail had been forwarded.

"That just shocked me," she said. "I was like, 'It's my mail. How can you not tell me where it was sent to?' "

Police eventually got that information through a subpoena, and told her that her mail and packages had been delivered to an address in Miami, according to Snow. A credit card was fraudulently opened in her name on June 23, which she has now closed.

No arrest

In talking to a police officer assigned to the case, Snow said she got the impression that given the likelihood the perpetrator is out of state, the frequency of such crimes and limitations of law-enforcement resources, there's a good chance nobody will ever be arrested.

While the postal service said there are safeguards to prevent people from fraudulently forwarding other people's mail, Snow said her case proves they aren't sufficient and that "anybody can forward anybody's mail."

One protection is a requirement that the postal service send cards to both the new and old addresses advising of the change in address. Snow said she never received such a card.

She said she has been refunded for the several packages she lost through the fraud, and has registered with a company that monitors for identity theft, use of personal information and credit score changes.

Snow contacted The Sentinel to tell her story in hopes of preventing other people from falling victim to such scams. She has also posted information about this incident on her Facebook page.

"The more people that know about this, the safer we all will be," she said. "We thought we were safe from porch pirates because we have security cameras, but now they are having the post office do their dirty work."

Rick Green can be reached at rgreen@keenesentinel.com or 603-355-8567.