INDIANAPOLIS – A 2021 audit report from the Office of Inspector General shows mail theft complaints increased 161% in March 2020 through February 2021 compared to March 2019 through February 2020.
Now, CBS4 is getting an exclusive look at where a lot of stolen mail is ending up.
“The criminals, in absence of better words, are posting videos of themselves essentially stealing mail from the blue boxes,” Dr. David Maimon, the head of an evidence-based cybersecurity research firm at Georgia State University, said.
Maimon and his team monitor 60 underground online platforms where he claims people are selling and buying commodities often used in fraud.
“We engage in a wide range of projects. One of the projects is understanding dark net environments as well as underground platforms in which criminals engage with each other. This is essentially how we realized this increase in the volume of stolen mail, specifically stolen checks, here in the United States,” explained.
Maimon said his team has discovered counterfeit money, fake documents like driver’s licenses, passports, and insurance cards, forged checks, compromised identities, and more on the dark web.