A Chicago man apparently uses a U.S. Postal Service change of address form to change the corporate mailing address of UPS to his apartment.
Change Of Address Processing
According to court documents, on Oct. 26, 2017, Dushaun Henderson-Spruce reportedly submitted the forms that would redirect thousands of mail intended for employees of the shipping company. People are stumped as to why a form that had errors on the signature line was processed by the post office in the first place. Officials have yet to determine why documents were not flagged properly.
Re-Routed Packages
After the request was processed, Henderson-Spruce allegedly started to receive all of the company's corporate packages and mail. These included items such as American Express corporate credit cards, invoices, and business checks. He deposited 10 of the latter with an approximate total of $58,000 into his bank account.
Records show that this continued for three months and got to a point wherein he ran out of mailbox space. What came after was piled in a USPS crate outside the door of his apartment on the north side of Chicago.
UPS security called the attention of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service after suspecting a breach, which led investigators to his apartment and eventually his arrest for a federal crime.
A Lot Of Evidence
Postal inspectors were able to recover around 3,000 pieces of mail from his apartment. At first, he claimed he was innocent and that it was probably a mix-up that caused the post office to misroute all of the packages to his address. He even told investigators that in 2012, he was a part-time worker at a company facility.
Henderson-Spruce is now facing federal charges of mail theft and mail fraud. Each carries a maximum sentence of five years and 20 years, respectively.
Concerns About Security
Reports on how Henderson-Spruce easily fooled the system to change the corporate address of UPS concern a lot of people. Nevertheless, the USPS reveals that it handled close to 37 million requests last year and claims that only a few complaints are related to fraud.
According to other sources, the address change request form is being exploited because of the lack of security measures. A person's name and address are all that's needed in order to re-route the mail, which makes it easy for criminals to perform identity theft.
Moreover, it is difficult for the victim to have it corrected since the new address is usually kept confidential. Instead, customers are encouraged to always check or retrieve their mail daily. An option to monitor it online is also available. If the mail does not arrive for more than a couple of days, it should be reported to the U.S. Postal Inspection Service.
