If you have a rural mailbox located on the road near your home like I do you may have had your mail tampered with. In the past this was just a minor annoyance, usually by kids but now mail theft has become a full time occupation for some.

On a recent news special an identity theft ring was exposed. The operated throughout the south and would drive hundreds of miles a day stealing mail that was left in rural mailboxes. Because they operated at night they were able to work undetected for many years. They had a home which was like a warehouse, with computers and even fake ID printers. They took documents like electricity bills and checks mailed from the bank and stole the victims identity.

Identity theft and mail theft are also on the rise because of the severe meth or methamphetamine addiction problem that is sweeping rural America. In Colorado, where the meth, mail theft associated theft problem is among the worst in the nation, authorities are urging people with rural and outside mailboxes not to leave outbound mail in the box.

Our Mail Theft Problem

After mail theft and use of stolen checks which were in our mailbox occurred to us I decided to adopt some measures to put an end to it. I could have chose to give up our rural mailbox and get one in the city but I decided to try and stop the mail theft and make our information more secure by other means.

First I changed all of our banking statements to online. We now get our statements on the computer instead of by mail. In addition we changed our credit card statements to paperless online ones so there will be no trace of this in our mail.

Next I cleared the weeds and brush that obscured our view of the mailbox. It is about 100 feet from the house and now we can see it clearly.

Then I installed a mailbox alert system I got on Amazon. The mailbox alert beeps inside the kitchen each time someone opens our mailbox and lets me know when the mail has been delivered. We pick it up immediately. Also i put a decal on the outside of the mailbox which reads "Mailbox alarm installed".

Now if someone does open our box illegally I can look outside and see them.

Next I joined Lifelock to protect our credit. Lifelock will call us on the phone is someone is trying to open a credit account or bank account.

Since I have adopted these measures we have had no issues with mail theft or identity theft.

Try changing the way your bank statements and credit card statements are delivered, installing a mailbox alarm and joining a credit alert company and protect yourself. Identity theft can be a nightmare just as we found out the hard way.