In honor of National Consumer Protection Week, we’re sitting down with two of our esteemed postal inspectors to learn how the USPIS is preventing mail fraud. We’ll talk about the significance of the week, notable scams to look out for, and how consumers can report fraud when discovered.
It’s National Consumer Protection Week! In honor of this observance, we’re sitting down with Ashlea Bowens and Jessica Adams, two of our esteemed postal inspectors, to learn how the USPIS is preventing mail fraud – including taking listeners behind-the-scenes of some of our most notable cases.
We’ll talk about the significance of this week and learn about how USPIS is helping to educate consumers on mail fraud and how they can better protect themselves. We’ll also talk about the increase of “work-at-home” scams in the wake of the pandemic and share tips on how consumers can identify and report these schemes.
For more information, visit https://www.uspis.gov/ and click on Tips & Prevention.
Dale Parsan:
Hi, everybody. Welcome to this episode of Mailin’ It, the official podcast of the United States Postal Service. I'm your co-host Dale Parsan.
Yasmine Di Giulio:
And I'm Yasmine Di Julio. Dale… Do you remember a few episodes ago when we had Chief Inspector Gary Barksdale here on mailing it to talk about what the Postal Inspection Service does and his background in law enforcement?
Dale Parsan:
How could I forget. Chief Barksdale filled us in on how they support and protect the Postal Service’s more than 600,000 employees, as well as our facilities and infrastructure. We also heard about how Postal Inspectors get involved in cases where mail he used to traffic drugs, or commit fraud. The Inspection Service even has its own accredited crime lab to help with their investigations.
Yasmine Di Giulio:
Wow, you were really paying attention!
Dale Parsan:
Of course I was.
Yasmine Di Giulio:
Good, because in honor of National Consumer Protection Week, this week, we're focusing this episode on how the Postal Inspection Service protects people from mail fraud here to talk about consumer fraud protection, are two of our esteemed Postal Inspectors, Ashlea Bowens and Jessica Adams. Ashlea, Jessica, welcome to Mailin’ It.
Jessica Adams:
We are happy to be here. Thank you.
Dale Parsan:
Great. Ashlea, why don't we start with you tell us a little bit about your role with the Inspection Service when you joined, why you joined and, and what you've been working on.
Ashlea Bowens:
Right. So, I've been with the Inspection Service for 10 years this month. So, Happy Anniversary to me. Currently, I am on detail as a program manager with the mail fraud program and the US Postal Inspection Service here in Washington, DC. Prior to that, I was assigned to the USPIS Department of Justice, International Mail Fraud team, also here in Washington, DC where we investigate a variety of complex mail fraud cases. I became a Postal Inspector because of my love of The X-Files, actually. I always wanted to be a federal agent and finally got a shot at it, so I chose the Inspection Service.
Dale Parsan:
Great.
Yasmine Di Giulio:
That’s a great story. What about you, Jessica? What brought you to the Postal Inspection Service?
Jessica Adams:
What brought me here is, before the US Postal Inspection Service, I actually worked back home where I am from. I am an inspector out of the Charlotte North Carolina field office. I have been with the agency for eight years this month, so it's my anniversary as well. And before that, I worked for our North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation. I've just been into public service. I didn't really know the US Postal Inspection Service existed until I worked for the SBI. And again, it was just an amazing opportunity and I decided to seize it and, and continue my public service with us. So it's been, it's been a great eight years.
Yasmine Di Giulio:
That's great. Well, we're glad to have both of you guys on the team at the Postal Inspection Service.
Dale Parsan:
Thank you for joining us today. Let, let's jump into things. Let's talk about National Consumer Protection W eek. I know it's organized by the Federal Trade Commission, the FTC, but what's the purpose behind it?
Jessica Adams:
The purpose of National Consumer Protection Week… The event launched back in 1998. It's always held the first full week of March. So this year it's gonna be March 6th through 12th. The purpose of this week is really to make the consumers and people aware of their rights, of their consumer rights. We are a big advocate for consumer education and we want to help the public not become victims themselves. So National Consumer Protection Week is just a great week to focus on that and help the public avoid becoming victims.
Yasmine Di Giulio:
That's great. I think the education component is so interesting and, and so important because the that's really the first step of crime prevention is to educate yourself about the crimes around you, so you don't become victim of these scams. I know Chief Barksdale talked to us a lot when he was on our podcast about fraud against the elderly, the unemployed and members of the military. So it really is out there and, and it's everywhere.
Dale Parsan:
Absolutely. Today with email and social media, especially. There are so many ways to fool people into sharing their personal information and to scam them out of money. What is the Postal Inspection Service doing this week to spread the word about different kinds of fraud and how people can protect themselves?
Ashlea Bowens:
Typically in past years, the Inspection Service would partner with fellow NCPW agencies, other state and local and federal law enforcement agencies to do consumer outreach. So the outreach has been done primarily in post office lobbies, banks, shopping malls, retirement communities, and churches. During these events we have been able to hand out pamphlets, brochures, flyers to educate the public on scams. This year, the flyers will be centered on work-at-home scams. This year, the flyers will be centered on work-from-home scams.
Yasmine Di Giulio:
I can imagine there's a rise in those type of scams since the pandemic started, and so many more people are, are staying in their homes.
Ashlea Bowens:
Absolutely, particularly with some individuals have lost their job during the pandemic, and they're looking for ways to make money and they see the advertisements for a work-at-home job that they think, oh, this is an easy way to make money.
Yasmine Di Giulio:
Do you have any examples of common work-at-home scams that you've seen?
Ashlea Bowens:
Absolutely. One common scam is envelope stuffing, and what that requires is someone offering you a job to do just what it sounds like: stuff envelopes. But you wanna be aware of that because they make you buy your own mailing supplies to begin with. And what job do you know of as a consumer that requires you to buy your own supplies to get started?
Yasmine Di Giulio:
And I can imagine you don't get reimbursed for those.
Ashlea Bowens:
You absolutely do not.
Yasmine Di Giulio:
Anything else.
Ashlea Bowens:
Yes. Medical billing is another one that we frequently see. Those are typically targeted for people who are just getting started in the field. Many promise billing or coding certification in less than a month. Realistically, these tasks take longer than a month to master. So instead, consumers should look for training or education programs from a local community college or trade school.
Dale Parsan:
Great. I've heard about a scam that offers people at-home jobs, shipping merchandise from place to place. Jessica, could you tell me a little bit more about that one?
Jessica Adams:
Yes, sir. That one is called a reshipping scam. These involve someone, usually online, will reach out to you and ask you, say, Hey, we have great job. Can you reship some merchandise I bought to somebody else? And you're thinking, okay, well that sounds too good to be true. And oftentimes these scammers will say, well, every package that you send out will cost X amount of money. So each package will be $16 or $25. It's a scam. Normally the merchandise they're going to send you is bought with a legal fund, someone stolen credit card. It didn't come from their own pocket. So just, that's a, a common one that we see. And again, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
Yasmine Di Giulio:
So do the people who fall for these scams, are they liable themselves?
Ashlea Bowens:
Absolutely. In some cases they are.
Yasmine Di Giulio:
So what are some of the penalties for committing these crimes?
Ashlea Bowens:
So the penalties can be up to 20 years imprisonment, up to $250,000 in fines, and they can be found liable to pay restitution to other victims that they have victimized.
Yasmine Di Giulio:
Wow. That's steep.
Ashlea Bowens:
That's steep.
Yasmine Di Giulio:
That's life changing.
Ashlea Bowens:
Absolutely. And definitely an incentive to not commit crime.
Dale Parsan:
Yeah. I, I think it sends the message that law enforcement isn't messing around when it comes to punishing those who commit these types of crimes. We've talked a lot about education and how important it is. So what are some important tips to help people avoid becoming victims of these scams?
Jessica Adams:
You know, again, just education, be alert, pay attention, don't agree to receive money or packages from people that you don't know. Don't forward anything to anyone that you don't know. Don't engage in any financial transactions with a stranger. Make sure you really do your due diligence at home. Check out an opportunity. Go onto, maybe, the BBB, the Better Business Bureau website. Make sure it's a legitimate company. Always just be suspicious and make sure that it's something that's, that's true and legitimate and a real company.
Yasmine Di Giulio:
So if you think that you are a victim of one of these scams, perhaps you've been involved with one of these companies, that's asking you to do the envelope stuffing or anything like that, what is your next step? If you would like to reach out and ask for help?
Ashlea Bowens:
One of the steps you can do to see if perhaps the company you're working for is scam, you can research it on the Better Business Bureau. If you think that you have been involved in a scam, you can report it to local law enforcement agencies and federal, definitely the US Postal Inspection Service. To file a report, you can go to our website, which is usps.gov/report.
Yasmine Di Giulio:
So Ashlea, I know you mentioned that there's those stiff penalties for mail fraud. So Jessica, can you talk about if people should be afraid of coming forward, if this is happening to them?
Jessica Adams:
No, people should not be afraid of coming forward. I know a lot of people are probably going to be embarrassed or they're going to think, oh my gosh, you know, I never thought this would happen to me, but in reality it happens a lot. It's not just them. So coming forward is definitely not something someone should be ashamed of. It's the scammers who take advantage of someone's vulnerability. And, you know, normally people that get scammed are just trying to do what's best for them and their family and make some money. And so there's nothing to be ashamed for that. If they feel that they are being scammed, again, you know, report it to us at www.uspis.gov. We also have prevention tips on the website that they can visit. And they can always call us if they don't have access to a computer. They can call us at +1 (877) 876-2455 to report that as well.
Yasmine Di Giulio:
That's great. I'm glad there's so many avenues that people can either reach out for help directly or, or look for resources to educate themselves.
Jessica Adams:
Right. And I just wanna focus on that. They should not be ashamed.
Yasmine Di Giulio:
So now that we know what not to do, we're at the part in the episode I was looking forward to the most, the part where we talk about some of the actual work-at-home fraud cases that you guys at the Inspection Service have uncovered. So Ashlea, do you have any cases that really stand out to you?
Ashlea Bowens:
Yeah. There was one in particular that I saw regarding an individual who applied for a work from home job. The way she got started with the job is she was sent a letter of employment. When she responded to an ad, they wanted to confirm her home address. And she communicated with the company primarily, and really only for through email and text. She was instructed she would receive packages at her address. And when she received those packages, she was supposed to open them, take pictures of the contents and text the pictures to phone numbers given to her by her, quote/unquote, employers. Eventually she received USPS mailing labels from the employers that she was supposed to repackage and then stick this label onto the new package and send on somewhere else. Eventually she received a letter from the US Postal Inspection Service saying that she was involved in a reshipping scam.
Ashlea Bowens:
When she received a letter from the US Postal Inspection Service, she told her employers about the letter who advised her that the letter itself was a scam and that she can continue doing her job. Her employers also told her that the letter came from their competitors who wanted to see them put out of business, so she was to disregard. Postal Inspectors visited her, confirmed for her that it was indeed a scam and through additional investigations, Postal Inspectors discovered that she was not quite the victim that originally she appeared to be. She was actually an active participant. So in that particular case, she was arrested and sentenced to three years probation.
Dale Parsan:
Wow. So, so what was so suspicious? What tipped off the Inspection Service that this was something to look at?
Ashlea Bowens:
Without getting into TOO many details... The inspectors noticed that she made a series of false statements that were untrue. She also continued to ignore cease and desist letters that were sent by the US Postal Inspection Service, after we had already visited her, which tipped us off of course, to investigate further and see that she was heavily involved in communicating with her quote/unquote employers in more of a partnership role than a victim role.
Jessica Adams:
Also, I think a lot of times work-from-home scams, when you have every shipping scheme, a lot of times the postage that this company will give you to ship is counterfeit. And then sometimes we receive tips from our own US Postal employee letter carriers. You know, if they think something going on sometimes they do say something. So there's different ways that we can get tipped on to these scams, so, work-from-home.
Yasmine Di Giulio:
So, Jessica, do you have any cases that stand out to you?
Jessica Adams:
There are other scams, work-from-home. There was a mystery shopping scam. This type of scam is where a postal customer will receive a large check or money order in the mail from their supposed employer. And they will go to the store, you know, with the check that they provided and buy the materials and then send us the money that is unused. So people will go and cash this check and buy the supplies and buy the time the local financial institutions realize that this check is fraudulent, they're out the money. So again, the victim is gonna be out that money and they've already sent the portion back to this so-called company, and that has benefited from this fraudulent check.
Yasmine Di Giulio:
So how does that involve the Postal Inspection Service?
Jessica Adams:
They mail these fraudulent checks. So the company that the victim possibly works for, they'll mail that check through the mail to their house, and then they'll have instructions saying, take this to the bank, you know, cash it, send us the money that's not used. And then by that time, you know, it catches up and then they're like, oh no… The check bounces, it's fraudulent, and then that victim is owed that money to the bank
Yasmine Di Giulio:
So basically, if anything touches the mail or goes through the mail, it's under the jurisdiction of the Postal Inspection Service.
Ashlea Bowens:
Absolutely.
Dale Parsan:
So with these counterfeit checks, who notifies the Inspection Service that, that something's been counterfeit? How do you guys find out? Is it the bank's responsibility? Is the person cashing the checks responsibility.
Jessica Adams:
Normally when it comes to the fraudulent checks, these people don't know, you know, at the time that they're depositing it into their financial institution and the first person notified is the victim itself. And then once they realize they've been scammed, they contact us or they can contact their local police department. And if it's a common problem, then it, it makes it's way to us.
Yasmine Di Giulio:
So you shared some really interesting stories of examples of different types of scams that consumers and the public could find themselves victim of. What is one thing that you would really want consumers to take away from you guys telling these stories and kind of promoting this crime prevention aspect of your work?
Jessica Adams:
I think one thing we want consumers to take away from this week and from the cases that they've heard here today is to know that they're not alone. There's this happens again a lot of times, and that we are out there to help them and to protect them. And we encourage them to report if they feel like they've been scammed. Prevention and education is a big part of that, because the more people we can educate on these type of scams and give those prevention, you know, prevention tips as, you know, make sure it's a legitimate company, get a job offer in writing, verify potential employ lawyer with the BBB, your state's attorney general office, the consumers affairs office. Just make sure you're taking care of yourself, so you're not that victim and you're not out anything financial because that's what these work from home scams are. It's like you wanna make money, you wanna stay at home with your kids. Again, the pandemic these days. It's really been hard on the working mom, especially. And so people are out there looking for these jobs. So scammers take advantage of that.
Dale Parsan:
I think it's the old adage of, if it feels too good to be true, it's probably something to look at a little harder.
Jessica Adams:
Correct. Exactly. Get your family, your trusted friends, you know, run it by somebody.
Dale Parsan:
So we've talked a lot about how the tail end, where the actual fraud's happening. I want to touch a little bit more on, on the masterminds behind all of these crimes, right? Can you tell us a little bit about the types of individuals victims would be dealing with and encountering?
Jessica Adams:
These individuals are evil. There's a work from home scam called money mules where they'll befriend almost the victim and they'll send them money. And then that person's instructed to send the money somewhere else. A lot of these folks tend to be elderly at time. They will call this person constantly. They'll almost groom them and, and look up stuff, you know, and, and say, oh, Hey, I know that you bought this house, you know, public information. And then they develop that relationship with folks in these people. And if they're elderly or they live alone they develop that relationship. And so it's, it makes it easy. They think they're doing the right thing.
Dale Parsan:
That’s terrifying.
Jessica Adams:
It's, it's absolutely horrible.
Yasmine Di Giulio:
So can you tell us a little bit about what specifically you guys do as part of National Consumer Protection Week? Maybe tell us some of the other agencies you work with, how you promote an outreach to consumers.
Jessica Adams:
Yes, the National Consumer Protection Week. Like I said before, the event launched back in 1998 and it's still strongly going to this day. And social media has been a big force with that and spreading the word on how people and consumers can avoid frauds and scams, how people can get involved. Really, it's community outreach. So there's multiple ways. People on social media can write blog posts, they can plan an event at their local communities, at their churches, post offices, some of the retirement communities, anything just to push the word out on how to protect themselves. You know, we encourage people to do that on social media and again, out in their communities. There is a lot of partners that do National Consumer Protection Week. It's not only us, but the Better Business Bureau, the Federal Trade Commission is the, who started it.
Ashlea Bowens:
FBI is involved.
Yasmine Di Giulio:
So it's really a big collaborative effort across the country and across different branches of, you know, the federal government, state governments, private organizations, all kind of working together.
Ashlea Bowens:
That's exactly right.
Yasmine Di Giulio:
So you mentioned that National Consumer Protection Week started in 1998, but I know the Postal Inspection Service and the Postal Service have been around for much longer than that. Can you talk a little bit about what you have done for prevention, historically?
Jessica Adams:
Yes. Postal inspectors have been protecting consumers ever since the Mail Fraud Statue had been passed back in 1872. One of our core missions here at the us Postal Inspection Service is prevention and consumer education. There are a lot of scammers and there aren't that many US Postal Inspectors across the country, roughly 12, 1300. So naturally we can't arrest everybody. So one of our main things is that prevention piece we want to, you know, educate our consumers. We do this through actively working with other agencies and doing campaigns such as National Consumer Protection Week. Some of our prevention methods that we do as we do partner with a lot of the different federal and government agencies, for instance, we partnered this last week, where it’s gonna cover a month. We partnered with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the CFTC, and we're doing a dating or defrauding scam. So, you know, concentrating on the romance scam. So we work with our federal partners and push out that prevention method. We also have public service announcements that you can find on our website that go over different cases and scams that we feel that consumers need to be aware of. So that's another place that you can go and look. We also have a few publications out there on how to prevent, you know, becoming a mail fraud victim. So we do have that outreach as well.
Dale Parsan:
Jessica, I've heard you guys bring up this idea of a, a romance scam and, and I feel like it, I might already know what it means just by, from the name, but could, could you explain to us a little bit more about that specifically?
Jessica Adams:
Yeah. Romance scams is where, usually again online, an individual will introduce themselves to another individual and they build a relationship. Eventually it leads to, you know, oh, Hey, I'm overseas and my car broke down. I need to get that thousand dollars.
Dale Parsan:
Oh my gosh.
Jessica Adams:
And then that's your girlfriend or boyfriend, or, you know, and then…
Dale Parsan:
Emotionally, at least.
Jessica Adams:
Emotionally, right. And then they trick the victims into sending them money.
Dale Parsan:
This is cat fishing to the extreme, wow.
Jessica Adams:
Extreme cat fishing. Yes.
Dale Parsan:
Ashlea. So as I understand it, how the Inspection Service is going to be kicking off this week is gonna be very much at the behest of each individual area, the local areas. But could you tell us a little bit about some of the bigger events that have happened in previous years?
Ashlea Bowens:
Certainly. In previous years, the local divisions for the Inspection Service, they have actually rented out billboards advertising National Consumer Protection Week and they particular focused for that week. In the past, we've also had shred-it days where the Inspection Service has hosted a shred-it site for consumers to bring their sensitive documents, and we shred it for them for free.
Yasmine Di Giulio:
Are there any common red flags that might be associated with these work from home schemes that people should be aware of?
Jessica Adams:
There is some verbiage out there that victims should be aware of and maybe, you know, that light bulb goes off in their head. So if an advertisement says, be your own boss, guaranteed job. If they offer you a job and you've never even interviewed with someone, these are some of those red flags that people should have in the back of their mind. Or even a high paying position, and there's no requirement for that. There's no on-the-job training, there's no certificate, there's nothing you have to do, but it pays high. Some red flags that people should be aware of. And again, just if it sounds too good to be true, follow your gut, cuz it's probably too good to be true.
Dale Parsan:
Ashlea, Jessica, thank you so much for joining us today and teaching us more about how the Postal Inspection Service is approaching National Consumer Protection Week for the betterment of the American people. Appreciate having you on.
Ashlea Bowens:
Thank you for having us.
Jessica Adams:
Thank you so much.
Dale Parsan:
All right. I think we're ready for Did You Know? In this segment, Yasmine and I each share an interesting historical or cultural fact about the Postal Service.
Yasmine Di Giulio:
It's a way for us to tell you things about the Postal Service that most people probably don't know. This time, we're sticking with the theme of the Postal Service’s role in fighting fraud. Dale, did you know that the original Ponzi scheme took place over the US Mail system?
Dale Parsan:
Seriously?
Yasmine Di Giulio:
Yeah. Today, most people know about Ponzi schemes, thanks to Bernie Madoff.
Dale Parsan:
The guy who conned investors out of something like $50 billion?
Yasmine Di Giulio:
$65 billion to be exact. Well, this kind of scam goes all the way back to 1920. When a hustler named Charles Ponzi set up a scheme that promised to give investors 50% returns on the money they gave him in a short amount of time.
Dale Parsan:
Ah, Charles Ponzi. Well, that would explain the name, but it doesn't explain how he was able to promise investors that level of return.
Yasmine Di Giulio:
So here's how it worked. In 1906, the Universal Postal Union created International Reply coupons as a way for people in different countries to send return postage to each other. Basically you could buy coupons in your own country and mail them to someone overseas. That person could redeem the coupons in their own country with the equivalent value and local postage. International regulations set the rate of exchange, but after World War I, there was massive devaluation of Europe currencies.
Dale Parsan:
Okay. I'm following along so far.
Yasmine Di Giulio:
So Ponzi realized that because the European currencies lost so much of their value after the war, if you purchased international reply coupons in many European nations, those coupons were worth more in the United States than you'd paid for them. So, if he could buy enough European coupons to sell in the US, he could make a killing. Ponzi convinced a few investors to chip in, promising them a 50% profit in 45 days. But he didn't realize the coupons couldn't be redeemed for cash, only for postage. That didn't stop him though. He simply used cash from a new group of investors to pay back the original investors.
Dale Parsan:
Ah, the old pyramid scheme. It only works if you can keep getting new investors though, to come on in and pay for the earlier ones.
Yasmine Di Giulio:
Right. So eventually the Postal Inspectors got suspicious. They knew that Ponzi couldn't be making enough money from buying and reselling the coupons, but they couldn't do anything because investors were seemingly still raking in money, thanks to the newbies kicking more in.
Dale Parsan:
But then…
Yasmine Di Giulio:
But then Ponzi made a fatal mistake. He got over-confident. He invited authorities to audit his books and said, he'd stopped taking new investments during the audit. Well, that spooked his investors who started withdrawing their money.
Dale Parsan:
Uh-oh…
Yasmine Di Giulio:
You got it. A month later, a Massachusetts bank commissioner ordered Ponzi’s bank to stop honoring his checks. Three investors filed a petition to declare Ponzi bankrupt. At that point, since he couldn't pay back his investors, the Postal Inspectors were able to move in. Ponzi was charged with using the mail to commit fraud, among other crimes. He spent about 11 years in prison and was then deported to Italy.
Dale Parsan:
So, justice was done. While we're on the subject of fighting fraud, we know from our earlier podcast about the Postal Inspection Service that they traced their roots all the way back to Benjamin Franklin.
Yasmine Di Giulio:
I remember that all the way back to 1775.
Dale Parsan:
That's right. They didn't call them “inspectors” back then, though. In fact, the first person to fill the role of overseeing the integrity of the postal system was William Goddard, whose official title was Surveyor of the Post. His job was to tour the country, establishing new post offices, arranging mail transportation contracts, and settling postmasters accounts.
Yasmine Di Giulio:
So, when did the Inspection Service begin to resemble the organization we know today?
Dale Parsan:
Well, it was gradual. In 1801, a special agent was appointed to investigate delays in moving mail between Washington DC and Kentucky. Six years later, another was hired to secretly investigate mail robberies in Tennessee. By 1861, the Post Office Department, as it was then known, had 21 agents. Their workload kept expanding as Congress enacted more laws to protect mail and mailers
Yasmine Di Giulio:
Such as?
Dale Parsan:
Well, in 1872 for example, Congress banned the mailing of obscene materials and in 1873, the Comstock Act added information about contraception, or abortion, to the banned list. Also in 1872, Congress passed the first mail fraud statute to let special agents pursue swindlers who use the mail system. In 1880, the special agents were renamed Post Office Inspectors. The title changed to Postal Inspector in the 1950’s.
Yasmine Di Giulio:
So, the Inspection Service has had to change with the times.
Dale Parsan:
That's right. One of the Inspector's biggest cases was capturing the DeAutremont brothers, notorious train robbers in 1927, after four years of pursuit. And yes, they were instrumental in bringing down our friend Charles Ponzi.
Yasmine Di Giulio:
With that. It looks like we've come full-circle. Well, that wraps up this installment of Did You Know?
Yasmine Di Giulio:
Dale, I really enjoyed our conversation with the Postal Inspectors today.
Dale Parsan:
Me too, Yasmine. What was your main takeaway?
Yasmine Di Giulio:
For me, it was fascinating to hear about the scams that these perpetrators put together. Some of them are honestly really clever and I can see how people could easily become victims without knowing it. I hope the red flags that Jessica mentioned are helpful to any of our listeners that may have been approached for these scams.
Dale Parsan:
Agreed. I, I think that what really shocks me the most is even during a global pandemic, these individuals are out there trying to figure out ways to game the system, hurt others, take advantage of them. And it's just really nice to know that we've got the Inspection Service helping to look out for the American people.
Yasmine Di Giulio:
Agreed, and they have a great website and lots of resources available for anyone who thinks that they may have encountered any of these scams. Their website is www.uspis.gov.
Dale Parsan:
All right. That wraps us up. Don't forget to subscribe to Mailin’ It wherever you get your podcast, and make sure you don't miss the next episode. And, follow along on Instagram: @uspostalservice, Twitter: @usps, and on Facebook for the latest postal news.