The Widder Curry: Beware of Scammers Pretending to Be From the Post Office

By Judi Curry

As an insomniac it is apparent to me that I am not thinking in a creative manner when I cannot sleep.  I’m still counting the sheep jumping over the fence.  But let me alert you to this one, which was new to me.

Hitomi was a foreign language student from Japan that had lived with me for five years studying English. Perhaps you may remember she was the flight attendant that was working domestic flights and wanted to fly international but her English would not let her pass the test. She came here to further her skills.

She liked it so well, and was learning so much that she stayed, and went on to other ESL schools to increase her fluency with the language.  As things happen, when she applied for the international job her English was acceptable, but for reasons I won’t go into here, she was turned down for the position, and she returned to me to continue with her English skills.  And she began looking for a job in San Diego that would accept her Japanese passport/visa.

However, there was not a viable company in San Diego that was hiring, but there was one in Los Angeles that offered to pay for the necessary visa, if she would sign a 2 year contract with them.  It was also in the hospitality field.  After much consideration she accepted the position, and with tears in her eyes, made the 120 mile move.

Hitomi and Shadow

All was well for the first year. She moved into a home owned by another Japanese woman and had two additional roommates. And although she was not enamored with Los Angeles, she went to work each day with a smile on her face.  But the second year living in the home with her roommates, the owner began to have some emotional problems that made Hitomi feel unsafe and she decided she should move elsewhere.

And that is where the “scam” comes in.

I frequently received mail for her, which I forwarded on to the house she moved into that first year.  I am still receiving mail for her, but now have been forwarding it to her new address, — bit she has not received any of it.

One was a notice of jury summons – and I thought that maybe they would not forward that out of San Diego County –so I didn’t think too much about it.  Another was a notice of a parking ticket and I knew that would be forwarded regardless of where she lived.  Another was from the DMV regarding her expiring license, and the 4th one was another traffic violation for driving on the toll road and not paying the toll road price.

Then she remembered that she had left a pair of jeans in the closet and wanted me to send them to her, which I did, and she received the package.  It was now apparent that something was wrong.

Yesterday she called me and asked me if she had to pay anything to have her mail forwarded. I told her that she did not; that she could do a change of address on-line if she wanted.

USPS Notice (Editordude: we know it’s too blurry to read, but it’s clear the Widder Curry tried to copy it.) It states: “Don’t miss any mail. Extend your Mail Forwarding End Date now for $19.95 for a 6-month extension; $29.95 for a 12 month extension, or $38.95 for a 18 month extension. To purchase Extended Mail Forwarding please go to “managingeasemove.USPS.com”.

She then forwarded me a letter from what appeared to be from the US Post Office that read:

“Don’t miss any mail. Extend your Mail Forwarding End Date now for $19.95 for a 6-month extension; $29.95 for a 12 month extension, or $38.95 for a 18 month extension. To purchase Extended Mail Forwarding please go to “managingeasemove.USPS.com”.

We both wondered if this was the reason she had not received the forwarded mail, but decided it wasn’t because I was forwarding it to her new address.  But since when does the Post Office charge to forward mail?  The letter she received states that her mail will be forwarded to the new address as of September 1, 2021, the day she moved.  Yet she has not received any of her mail at the new address.

When I checked to see if the post office charged to forward mail this was the answer I received:

“Frequently Asked Questions. Does the USPS® charge a fee for mail forwarding? The USPS will forward your First-Class Mail® for free through a standard change-of-address form.”…

The USPS also offers premium forwarding so that you can receive all of your mail at your new address.  And then I read a little bit further and found this:

“Scammers are pretending to be USPS online, collecting money from people trying to change their address as they move homes.”

Whether or not Hitomi received a scam letter I am not certain. But what I am certain is that there is no fee to change your mailing address.  Where the mail is that I forwarded to her is another question; one that I will look into as the days progress.  But if you are moving – beware that what looks official may not be at all!