Three USPS workers and several others stole credit cards from the mail, charged $1.3 million, and stole hundreds of identities since 2018.
What Happened
According to the Department of Justice (DOJ), three US postal employees and one other have been arrested in connection to a $1.3 million fraud and identity theft scheme. Five other people are facing charges in connection with the case, who remains at large. There are nine defendants in this case.
In the official DOJ statement, U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said, “As alleged, the defendants engaged in a years-long scheme to manipulate credit card companies and major retailers across New York and New Jersey by stealing credit cards and using those cards to purchase, and subsequently sell, luxury goods. The defendants took advantage of the public trust we place in U.S. Postal Service employees for their own financial gain. Thanks to the diligence of USPIS, the NYPD, and USPS-OIG, the defendants will now be held accountable for their brazen criminal conduct.”
The Details
The fraud involved nine people, three U.S. postal employees, who started the criminal scheme in December 2018.
The DOJ stated the defendants conspired to steal credit cards from the mail and used the cards to purchase items at various stores, including some high-end retailers.
Some of the luxury products ended up for sale at LuxorySnob.com, an online consignment and personal shopping company. The DOJ stated that many of the items they sell are purchased using stolen credit cards.
Customers’ credit cards were stolen from the mail stream before being delivered to their rightful owners, who activated the cards and used the intended recipients’ personally identifiable information (PII).
The criminals used the stolen credit cards to purchase luxury goods like items by Chanel, Fendi, Hermes, and Dior from major department stores in Manhattan, Brooklyn, and New Jersey.
The USPS Responds
USPIS Inspector-in-Charge Daniel B. Brubaker said “Make no mistake, the Postal Inspection Service will not allow thieves, no matter who they are, to use the U.S. Mail to harm postal customers or the financial institutions that serve them. We are pleased the members of this criminal syndicate have been apprehended and their crime spree brought to an abrupt end.”
The postal service is also under scrutiny because of its top-secret project that spied on gun owners. The top secret spy operation monitored protesters around the country for anti-gun and anti-Biden activity. The post office’s surveillance took from September 2020 to April 2021.
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The three postal thieves were black democrats. DOJ has declined to prosecute them.
The post office is quietly promoting them.