Postal Service Launches National Consumer Protection Week

“Don’t Fall For a Fake Check Scam”

What:
Postal Service officials will be on hand at the Main Post Office in Nashville to provide information during National Consumer Protection Week. Officials will distribute informational brochures warning against fraudulent financial schemes, providing consumers with valuable information about protecting their assets from the schemes as well as ways to report suspected financial fraud.

Who:
Jan Connerly, Gen. Analyst, Postal Inspection Service
Tom Goldman, Postal Inspector, Postal Inspection Service
Debbie Vick, Consumer Affairs, U.S. Postal Service

When:
9 a.m. until 1 p.m.
Thursday, March 6

Where:
Main Post Office Lobby
525 Royal Parkway
Nashville, TN

Background:
National Consumer Protection Week, March 2-8, is a national program designed to draw attention to issues and ideas that help customers become smarter consumers of products, materials and services and improve their knowledge of how to combat fraud

A global fraud crackdown began in January 2007. Since then, postal inspectors and their global law enforcement partners have seized more than 600,000 “fake checks” with a value of about $2.5 billion. In October 2007, the Postal Inspection Service partnered with a coalition of 20 businesses, financial entities and consumer advocacy groups to launch the www.FakeChecks.org website, designed to educate consumers about the those and other scams.

A recent Federal Trade Commission survey on identity theft determined that only 2 percent of all victims reported that the theft was connected to the mail.

The U.S. Postal Inspection Service is working to educate consumers about fraudulent schemes and to provide them with the tools and information needed to combat these “fake check” frauds. Postal Service representatives from across the country—including in Nashville—are educating consumers by distributing brochures warning against fraudulent financial schemes.