[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 69 (Tuesday, April 25, 2023)] [Senate] [Pages S1337-S1338] From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
Date: 2023-04-25
Chamber: SENATE
Mr. DURBIN: we do a lot to protect our identity and financial security from scammers and thieves. We guard our PIN numbers and passwords. We shred bills and financial documents. We are on guard for phishing attacks and cyber scams. But there is another, growing threat to our financial safety that many Americans are unaware of. Across the country, we are seeing a surge in armed robberies of letter carriers. In many of the attacks, the robbers stealan ``arrow key.'' That is a master key that unlocks the blue collection boxes you drop your mail into, as well as cluster mailboxes in subdivisions and other multi-unit mailboxes. With an arrow key, a robber can open mailboxes and steal whatever is in there, including packages and prescription medications. And often, they steal checks. This can lead to identity theft, financial fraud, and other serious crimes. Here is how it works: The robbers use the dark web and messaging apps to sell the stolen checks. The cyber criminals who buy the stolen checks then use nail polish remover to wash and rewrite the checks for any amount they choose. A $15 check to your doctor can become a $15,000 check to someone you have never heard of. Listen to these figures from the U.S. Postal Inspection Service: Between 2018 and 2021, robberies of letter carriers more than tripled, and robberies involving a gun more than quadrupled. And between March 2020 and February 2021, the Postal Inspection Service received 299,000 reports of mail theft, a 161-percent increase in mail thefts in just 1 year. And the problem is getting worse. In Chicago, at least a dozen postal carriers were robbed at gunpoint between early March and early April this year. Police say the robbers were armed with semi-automatic handguns. I have met with letter carriers in Chicago. They tell me they are fearful about what is happening. They worry that they could be next. And the looming threat of armed robbery is making it even harder to fill letter carrier vacancies. And this is not just a Chicago problem. Last year in Orlando, FL, two men were caught on video approaching a letter carrier at a condo complex. The postal worker was found robbed and beaten with a severe head injury. In January of this year, a 66-year-old letter carrier was kidnapped and robbed in Charlotte, NC. The list goes on and includes nearly every State in the country. These are not simply random attacks. Police say organized crime groups and gangs appear to be driving the increase in letter carrier robberies. We have seen something like this before. In 2011, after a similarly disturbing trend, I urged the former Postmaster General to implement a rapid alert system to inform letter carriers of any crimes committed in their vicinity. The alerts were a warning to letter carriers to be vigilant, and they helped. But now, the alerts have stopped. Now, I have serious concerns about many decisions by the current Postmaster General, but this decision seems especially wrong-headed. Yesterday, I met in Chicago with members of the National Association of Letter Carriers' Illinois chapter. I told them that I was sending a letter to both Postmaster General Louis DeJoy and Attorney General Merrick Garland. I am asking the U.S. Postal Service and the Department of Justice to work together to prevent robberies of letter carriers-- and punish those who commit the robberies. They also need to crack down on the cyber thieves who buy and sell checks, arrow keys, and other property stolen from the Postal Service. And the Postal Service can act right now to reduce this surge in robberies by making some simple changes on its own. They should restart crime alerts to letter carriers. USPS also can reduce the financial motivation driving many of these robberies by investing in new technology that would enable two-factor authentication for dropboxes and cluster mailboxes. Letter carriers are proud of their long tradition of braving rain, snow, and sleet to deliver the mail. But they cannot brave this threat on their own. USPS and DOJ must step up to better protect letter carriers and the tens of millions of American families and businesses that depend on the U.S. Postal Service.