USPS Lists Top 5 Mail-Fraud Scams
The U.S. Postal Service's list of top mail-fraud scams features free-prize schemes, foreign lotteries, pyramid schemes, investment-fraud scams and work-at-home schemes.The list, released Feb. 2 by the USPS, ranks the scams on the basis of number of victims and amount of monetary loss.
Last year, postal inspectors investigated more than 3,100 fraud cases and Postal Inspection Service analysts processed more than 80,000 mail-fraud complaints. The Inspection Service's mail-fraud program produced $2 billion in court-ordered restitution to fraud victims and 780 civil or administrative actions.
The list coincides with the sixth annual National Consumer Protection Week, which this year is Feb. 1-7.
