Community mailbox system could increase identity theft
Posted December 11, 2013 8:35 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
BELCARRA (NEWS1130) – Canada Post’s move towards community mailboxes and away from home delivery could lead to more mail theft, according to some local politicians.
The community mailboxes are vulnerable to break-ins and that could mean identity theft, says Belcarra Mayor Ralph Drew.
“Mailbox break-ins which are primarily identity theft are a relatively recent occurrence. It’s really only been in the last 10 years that an industry has developed around identity theft,” says Drew.
Despite improvements, Drew says existing boxes are vulnerable. He says the deficiencies aren’t hard to find.
“There is more to do and that includes the hardening of the lock mechanism itself. That latch mechanism needs to be hardened so that people can’t pry the individual mailboxes,” he explains.
Drew says Belcarra has exclusively used community boxes for decades and mail theft has always been a problem.
He says it’s gotten better in recent years with upgrades to the mailboxes themselves but it’s not a perfect system yet.
Drew does say that communication with Canada Post about repairs and replacements has generally been good.
