Federal court papers describe a scheme in which the mailing address for the corporate headquarters of shipping giant UPS was changed to a small apartment in the Chicago area, the Chicago Tribune reported this week.
UPS is based in Sandy Springs, with 745,000 square feet of office space at its headquarters campus.
But mail destined for the headquarters was diverted to "Apartment L2" in the Rogers Park neighborhood of Chicago, according to the Tribune. Here's what the Chicago newspaper reported:
Among the correspondence were letters meant for the company's CEO and other executives, sensitive documents containing personal information, as well as corporate credit cards and tens of thousands of dollars in business checks, according to an affidavit from the U.S. Postal Inspection Service submitted with the warrant.
It wasn't until the resident, Dushaun Spruce, allegedly deposited nearly $60,000 in UPS checks into his bank account in late January that UPS was alerted to the alleged scam, court papers say.
UPS issued a statement saying: “The U.S. Postal Service (USPS) corrected the issue and the USPS Postal Inspector is investigating the incident.”
Such change-of-address fraud raises the risk of identity theft. The U.S. Postal Inspection Service's website notes that "a crook could submit address changes to divert customers' mail without their knowledge," so when a change is filed, post offices now send a "move validation letter" to the old and new address. Postal Inspectors can arrest anyone suspected of filing a false change-of-address order.
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