The facts do not support the sweeping scope claimed for this incident.
The systems designed to protect US Postal Service customers did their job.
Reporting throughout the state has claimed that as many as 1 million policy holders could have been affected.
This is simply NOT true.
In fact, there is no evidence whatever to suggest that this fraudulent change of address order caused any mail whatever to be forwarded. Also, the Post Office of delivery listed on the fraudulent Change of Address order reports it has not received any of Citizen’s mail.
The quantity of mail received by a major firm like Citizen’s is very great. We’re talking about thousands upon thousands of pieces of mail every day. The operations of firms like Citizen’s are on such a scale that such an irregularity would be immediately obvious.
Further, Christine Ashburn, a spokeswoman for Citizen’s confirmed in a phone conversation with me that the volumes of mail received by Citizen’s during the period in question were normal. There was no evidence in their own operation that their mail was being diverted.
Here is what happened:
A fraudulent hard copy Change-of-Address order submitted for Citizen’s Property Insurance was processed on June 27, 2010.
Following standard practice, a letter requesting confirmation was sent to Citizens Property Insurance by the U.S. Postal Service and was received by Citizens on July 1, 2010.
Security precautions built into the U.S. Postal Service Change-of-Address system prevented the forwarding order from taking effect.
According to U.S. Postal Service records a fraudulent Change-of-Address order was also submitted via the Internet. Once again, a letter requesting confirmation of the order was sent to Citizens Property Insurance.
When Citizens Property Insurance responded the fraudulent request was immediately canceled.
The United States Postal Inspection Service, the federal law enforcement agency of the Postal Service, is investigating this crime.
To use the mail to advance a fraud is a federal crime and the law provides for fines up to $200,000 and five years in prison.
Bob, you must work for Citizens. It IS a government job as much as working for the post office is a government job. Just because the government creates something and tries to make it semi-private doesn’t make it any less a government job!
Thanks for clarifying this. Seemed pretty unbelievable that someone could just submit a COA and that a check and balance was not in place to prevent. Now we know that it is. Curious if Citizens jumped the gun or if the headline misled. Regardless, Citizen’s seems to be doing the right thing by verifying payments for the period in question.
Citizen’s did right to move quickly to protect their policy holders.
We have an excellent relationship with Citizens and they have been professional and helpful throughout.
However, the grapevine, as the story got passed about from outlet to outlet, has left many with the impression that the matter has had a far bigger impact that it really has.
Though the risk that their policy holders have been compromised is vanishingly small, Citizens has shown how deeply committed they are to the security of their customer’s identity by putting the means in place for any who think they may be impacted to get immediate reassurance that their correspondence did, in fact, get to the right place at the right time.
Help us understand why the USPS wants another raise in postal rates? As a semi-governmental employee, what kind of pay cut or reduction have you taken to reduce overhead. If more folks knew that their postal carrier was making $30-$40 an hour they may get a little more uptight about mailing a .46 cent letter. wages are just not to scale for the work load at the post office.
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The facts do not support the fear.
The facts do not support the sweeping scope claimed for this incident.
The systems designed to protect US Postal Service customers did their job.
Reporting throughout the state has claimed that as many as 1 million policy holders could have been affected.
This is simply NOT true.
In fact, there is no evidence whatever to suggest that this fraudulent change of address order caused any mail whatever to be forwarded. Also, the Post Office of delivery listed on the fraudulent Change of Address order reports it has not received any of Citizen’s mail.
The quantity of mail received by a major firm like Citizen’s is very great. We’re talking about thousands upon thousands of pieces of mail every day. The operations of firms like Citizen’s are on such a scale that such an irregularity would be immediately obvious.
Further, Christine Ashburn, a spokeswoman for Citizen’s confirmed in a phone conversation with me that the volumes of mail received by Citizen’s during the period in question were normal. There was no evidence in their own operation that their mail was being diverted.
Here is what happened:
A fraudulent hard copy Change-of-Address order submitted for Citizen’s Property Insurance was processed on June 27, 2010.
Following standard practice, a letter requesting confirmation was sent to Citizens Property Insurance by the U.S. Postal Service and was received by Citizens on July 1, 2010.
Security precautions built into the U.S. Postal Service Change-of-Address system prevented the forwarding order from taking effect.
According to U.S. Postal Service records a fraudulent Change-of-Address order was also submitted via the Internet. Once again, a letter requesting confirmation of the order was sent to Citizens Property Insurance.
When Citizens Property Insurance responded the fraudulent request was immediately canceled.
The United States Postal Inspection Service, the federal law enforcement agency of the Postal Service, is investigating this crime.
To use the mail to advance a fraud is a federal crime and the law provides for fines up to $200,000 and five years in prison.
Joseph Breckenridge, USPS Communications
Bob, you must work for Citizens. It IS a government job as much as working for the post office is a government job. Just because the government creates something and tries to make it semi-private doesn’t make it any less a government job!
Thanks for clarifying this. Seemed pretty unbelievable that someone could just submit a COA and that a check and balance was not in place to prevent. Now we know that it is. Curious if Citizens jumped the gun or if the headline misled. Regardless, Citizen’s seems to be doing the right thing by verifying payments for the period in question.
Citizen’s did right to move quickly to protect their policy holders.
We have an excellent relationship with Citizens and they have been professional and helpful throughout.
However, the grapevine, as the story got passed about from outlet to outlet, has left many with the impression that the matter has had a far bigger impact that it really has.
Though the risk that their policy holders have been compromised is vanishingly small, Citizens has shown how deeply committed they are to the security of their customer’s identity by putting the means in place for any who think they may be impacted to get immediate reassurance that their correspondence did, in fact, get to the right place at the right time.
Joseph Breckenridge
Help us understand why the USPS wants another raise in postal rates? As a semi-governmental employee, what kind of pay cut or reduction have you taken to reduce overhead. If more folks knew that their postal carrier was making $30-$40 an hour they may get a little more uptight about mailing a .46 cent letter. wages are just not to scale for the work load at the post office.
Talk about getting off the subject, huh…
Jim, please send your contact information to me joseph.l.breckenridge@usps.gov
I would be glad to give you all the facts.
JB
Maybe you could also give Jim a tour of a processing facility & see if he could cut it working in one for a day!