Email and telephone calls are inexpensive ways for scammers to gain access to potential sources of revenue. While inexpensive cons are good for scammers on a budget, there are those with additional resources who realize the power of mail in luring new victims into a sales pitch. Mail messages are as effective as they are inescapable, but there is a way to limit the volume of these messages that appear in one’s mailbox.
Mail receives more attention from recipients than all the spam emails in the world. Spam filters and an avalanche of frequently ignored sales messages have limited the volume of spam emails that reach recipients. Mail, however, has a high success rate of reaching the hands of those to whom the mail is addressed. This increases the likelihood that a recipient will see the advertisement and become lured into the message it contains. For those who want to reduce the amount of this material in their mailboxes, renting a PO Box is an option worth considering.
If scammers identify and target your PO Box, and you begin receiving an avalanche of unwanted material, you can change your PO Box number for a small fee. Though you may have to alert those with whom you do business that your address has changed, it’s far more costly and time consuming to change a home address. Switching to a PO Box for your mail might also prevent a scammer or thief who wants to pay you a visit at your home, or drop by when you’re not at home, from doing so. The scoundrel will find it more difficult to find out where you live if you use a PO Box as a mailing address.
PO Boxes provide individuals with more options to limit and control the material they receive in the mail. There is also an additional benefit of obtaining a PO Box – enhanced security.
Thieves are increasingly targeting neighborhood mailboxes. They want easy access to a large quantity of material in the hopes that some of it contains a valuable financial benefit or can be used to steal a person’s identity. The chances of a mail thief getting caught, even in broad daylight, are limited given that most people are either asleep or at work. At a postal facility, the security of PO Boxes is more difficult to defeat. The buildings are well-lit and highly visible, making it extremely challenging to hide the nature of a visit.
While the theft prevention benefits of switching to a PO Box are instantaneous, it may take some time for a home address to filter out of the distribution lists of scammers. Don’t be discouraged. It will happen in time, if you use the PO Box address on all correspondence with businesses for all purposes. Don’t make exceptions to this. Businesses frequently hand over your mailing information to affiliates for advertising purposes and some companies you do business with may even sell their customer contact lists to other entities for more revenue. Control your information by diverting your mail to a PO Box and you’ll have the option of rendering spammer’s and scammer’s information obsolete by switching to another box.
Renting a PO Box is an inexpensive way to limit spam and prevent a person’s mail from falling into the hands of thieves. To determine if you should rent a box at your local Post Office, consider the type and frequency of the mail you receive and then imagine it falling into the hands of thieves. If the ability to limit questionable advertising mail and substantially reduce the potential theft of your mail is desirable, the benefit of renting a box may be worth the additional expense.