someone's had his address changed to mine. what do?

July 28, 2016 9:13 AM

For the past week or so I have been getting mail addressed to another person and address, with the little yellow "mail forwarding" sticker on the bottom saying "please forward to [blast hardcheese's address]." This seems like it could either be a dopey mistake or, more likely, a weird scammy thing. What should I do? Would it be weird to contact the other person?

The mail is originally addressed to a man at an address some 5 blocks away. A quick google confirms that this dude definitely lives (or lived until recently) at the original address. The forwarding address is our apartment but slightly wrong--think "Unit 3S" instead of "Unit 3W."

I've heard of this being done as part of an identity theft scam, but the scam seems to rely on being able to intercept the mail at the new wrong address, and our mailboxes are under lock and key! So is this just a scam that someone did not fully think through? Something else sketchy? I have a full view of our mailroom from my home office, as it happens--definitely haven't seen anyone lurking for mail or packages, though obviously I am not on watch 24/7.

So, clearly I need to contact someone--the local office? The postmaster? But also, thanks to the miracle of Google, I have some contact info for the person to whom this mail belongs. Should I get in touch with him, in case he has no idea his mail is traveling? (I'm not tremendously confident that our local post office will follow up on this with any swiftness...)

FWIW: We live in a small multi-unit building. There have been no vacant/for-rent units for quite some time, though it's possible he would be moving in as someone's partner/roommate. And, I mean, obviously....we've renewed our lease, and it seems extremely unlikely that this person somehow mistakenly believes he is moving into our apartment. All this to say, I don't think this guy is moving in across the hall and just made a simple error in his forwarding.

posted by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese to Law & Government (10 answers total)

I would either contact the local post office and explain the situation or write on the outside of the envelopes, "Not at this address> Address incorrect" and return them to the mail carrier or post office. Let the post office contact the intended recipient. You have no idea if that person is the nicest person in the world or Donald Trump level batshitinsane.
posted by AugustWest at 9:20 AM on July 28, 2016 [5 favorites]

In case it's a simple wrong-apartment error, if there's a shared entry to your multi-unit, slap up a sign that says "Are you Dudename? Email blasthardcheese to talk about why we're getting your mail."

I get letters all the time for the person who lives on the next street over, if I'm on Elm Drive, she's on Elm Circle. Sometimes it's misdelivered, and sometimes she's filled out the form with my street instead of hers. I'm more likely to believe stupidity over maliciousness, so I'd at least contact the guy.

Maybe depends on your neighborhood, and whether talking to strangers is something that's done or not.
posted by aimedwander at 9:23 AM on July 28, 2016 [2 favorites]

Local office, then postmaster, and if nothing happens after that, then just circle the yellow thing and write "NOPE" in black sharpie and place it in your 'out' box, whatever format that is. This will bother everyone at the post office enough to get them to deal with it. If you write 'return to sender' or 'not at this address' they have protocols for that, but if you write 'NOPE' on it, they actually have to deal with it outside their protocols, and it will be remedied pretty quick.
posted by furnace.heart at 9:24 AM on July 28, 2016 [10 favorites]

Yup, the Post Office should be the ones to handle this.

That being said:

I have a full view of our mailroom from my home office, as it happens

If you can catch your actual mail person, you can ask them what the best way of dealing with this at the Post Office would be.

For now, you can just write "not at this address" and keep putting the mail back into the mailbox, but ideally you'd like the incorrect forwarding to stop, and I'm sure there is a proper procedure for that, and asking your mail person might save you a trip to the actual post office.
posted by sparklemotion at 9:25 AM on July 28, 2016 [1 favorite]

Can you clarify? If the forwarding labels say "Unit 3S," instead of "Unit 3W" (#3W being your apartment), then is there a reason for the mail being placed in your box instead of in the #3S box?
posted by JimN2TAW at 9:25 AM on July 28, 2016 [1 favorite]

Using a Sharpie, write "Not at this address" and write an X over the address. Then black out the barcode-like printing at the bottom of the envelope. The barcode-looking stripey line is what the post office uses to route mail automatically. If the reader can't read it, a human will eventually see the "Not at this address" when it lands on their desk.

USPS has an FAQ; search for "reporting/returning misdelivered mail." It says "just place in your mailbox" but that's inaccurate; most mail carriers will just leave it there, so you should write "not at this address" and take it to another mail box.
posted by blnkfrnk at 9:29 AM on July 28, 2016 [4 favorites]

Do continue to write 'Not at this address' on every piece of mail and leave it for the carrier to pick up. Do not hold on to the mail and try and deliver it yourself. When I first moved to my most recent place, I kept a pen in my box for this purpose. It took almost a year before the previous occupants straightened out their business and, from what they were getting, they were not the sort of people that I wanted anything to do with.
posted by myselfasme at 9:31 AM on July 28, 2016 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Can you clarify? If the forwarding labels say "Unit 3S," instead of "Unit 3W" (#3W being your apartment), then is there a reason for the mail being placed in your box instead of in the #3S box?

Because there IS no "Unit 3s"-- there's only W and E in the building, and technically the W apartments have a different numerical address (like, we're 1000 and they're 1002). I have checked with "3E" and no, this person's not their new roommate or anything.
posted by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese at 9:37 AM on July 28, 2016

Response by poster: Also of note: this person is NOT a previous occupant to this unit. I know the previous occupants.
posted by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese at 9:38 AM on July 28, 2016

You say the original address is 5 blocks away, could you not pop over there and find out if they have the correct forwarding address or contact details for the recipient?

Yes you could just return it all as "not at this address", that would be the simplest but it seems like you have a chance to fix the problem and help this person get their mail. If you just mark it as "not at this address" you'll have to keep doing it until the mail forwarding service expires or the recipient discovers the error on his own
posted by missmagenta at 11:36 AM on July 28, 2016 [1 favorite]