Stop Criminals from Stealing Your Holiday Packages

Have you been hearing more and more stories about people robbing Christmas presents from people's porches? Now, they have a new way to figure out not only when you have a new package but what's inside. Stop it now!

Before, robbers would just take packages off your porch around the holidays assuming that it's probably an expensive gift to or from someone not caring what's inside. This year, they have a new scam to tell them not only what's inside but exactly when it's planning on being delivered, you just have to do it first!

The United States Postal Service (USPS), according to CBS 6, has a service called "Informed Delivery," which is actually quite helpful! 13 million customers have signed up and cybersecurity experts think this is the best way to protect what's arriving at your house this season. If you sign up for Informed Delivery, the USPS will email scanned images of your letters and packages by 9:00am on the day they're going to be delivered. Sounds great, right? The problem is, it's not completely foolproof.

Potential robbers could technically sign-up for Informed Delivery using your information and that's how they can know what's going to be arriving at your house before you do. They use your name and address (both easy to find out on mail) but their email address. The USPS is telling people that there are two ways to stop potential burglaries: either sign up for Informed Delivery to connect your address to your email before anyone else, or request that no accounts be allowed for their address by calling USPS Technical Support at 1-800-344-7779.