I should add that I already called the post office and they are "looking into it" so I have no idea what will result from that. They couldn't tell me whether it was against the law or not.

Never mind...I just went to the website and saw this note under the change of address form:

The person who prepares this form states that he or she is the person, executor, guardian, authorized officer, or agent of the person for whom mail would be forwarded under this order. Anyone submitting false or inaccurate information on this form is subject to punishment by fine or imprisonment or both under Sections 2, 1001, 1702 and 1708 of Title 18, United States Code.

So I guess it's illegal!

How do you know that the verification notice you received isn't regarding the change of address you submitted 2 weeks ago?

Did you receive one prior to this one for the form you submitted?

"The person who prepares this form states that he or she is the person, executor, guardian, authorized officer, or agent of the person for whom mail would be forwarded under this order."

So, the person who filled out the form was filling it out as an "authorized officer," which wouldn't be illegal. S/he may not BE your "authorized officer," but s/he may have BELIEVED S/HE WAS since s/he is the regular resident (owner?) where your mail was erroneously being delivered.

"Anyone submitting false or inaccurate information on this form is subject to punishment by fine or imprisonment or both under Sections 2, 1001, 1702 and 1708 of Title 18, United States Code."

You wrote, "While the addresses are correct," which is an admission that false or inaccurate information was not submitted.

So, the only real issue is whether or not this person had the right to submit a change of address form for you. And since the information on the form is correct, I doubt the authorities would expend any time or effort on this because, as they say, "no harm, no foul."

Yes, I received confirmation for the previous one last month.

The reason I know is because I logged in with the confirmation code that the letter included and it said that my request was accepted on 11/17. I haven't been anywhere near the post office site in well over a month. It was also within two days of the person sending me an email about the two pieces of mail.

I don't want to actually press charges or anything like that. I'd rather the post office resources went to more important matters. I was just curious from a legal standpoint.

Actually, going through it, I see that they are required to enter "my" email address to receive confirmation. Since they entered one that does not belong to me, that would count as false/inaccurate information. :P

It also says things like "please enter your name" so I would think by replying to that with false information, that could also count.

I'm not trying to argue your points Lindsey, as I'd be willing to bet you're right, especially about the time or effort.

If it were me, I'd visit the post office and ask to speak with ther PostMaster(Mistress) , not a clerk, regarding what happened and their policies. I would think they would ask for a picture ID before taking a forwarding mail request from anyone.

They allow you to do it online as long as the credit card address matches either the old or new address. It's not based on name so they were able to do it since they live at the old address.

I don't know if it is technically legal. But I can't imagine they would prosecute something like that, in your particular situation.

When my sister broke up with her baby's father and moved out of their apartment and back to mom and dads she filled out one of those forms. Her boyfriend filled out a form with my sisters name and our parents address to have her mail sent to his address.
The post office even accidentally forwarded some of my parents mail, along with my sisters. So he got some of my parents bank statements and such. He didn't even get in trouble for that.

When my mother passed away, I had to show the post office a copy of her death certificate and her will to show myself as executor before they would foreword her mail to me.

I know it's just a question... but if you're not going to do anything about it (which I hopefully assume you're not) and as long as the address info is correct and they didn't intend to sabotage your mail, I'd forget about it.

Legal or not, life is too short to worry about stuff like this.

We still get occasional important mail for the previous owner of our home, and we bought the place over 5 years ago. Just so you know....

Talk to the postmaster and/or the postal inspector, not a clerk.

I agree with Carla. Sounds like someone saved you some time. Maybe a Thank you, don't help me again tho, would be better. Sounds like someone wants to bicker to me.

Think this is a case for Judge Judy

This person didn't want any more of your mail coming to that address, so he/she actually went out of his way to make sure you were getting all your mail. That annoys you? Many times, the P.O. is kind of unreliable about the change-of-address cards. I have frequently overheard conversations at the P.O. between a clerk and someone who said he filled out a card but the mail has not been forwarded. It's just people typing stuff into a computer, so mistakes can be made. Maybe the person you stayed with just thought 2 cards are better than one. And at least he/she didn't toss your mail in the trash or send it to some made-up address halfway across the country! The legality of the issue wouldn't even cross my mind.

If just 2 pieces of mail bothered the person, and the person went through "official channels" to make sure no more arrived there, it sounds like there's some other underlying issue between you two.

I'm sensing there's more to the issue here.

(Also, the change-of-address forms you can just hand to the clerk, well, I've never been asked for ID.)

Yep, there are definitely other issues between us that I'm sure are affecting my attitude towards the whole thing. I generally wouldn't care but this is the latest occurrence of a series of very unwelcome gestures by this person. So I see it more hostile than I normally would.

But you're right, it's not a big deal and life is short so I'm going to just ignore it. Thanks for the advice.

I think the address change is probably only good for first class mail. You're receiving all of your bills and such at your new address but any 2nd or 3rd class mail (junk mail, catalogs, magazines) are still going to the old address because the post office won't forward them. The PO isn't going to use their resources to forward junk mail that didn't cost the sender much postage to begin with.

When we bought our current home we didn't get any first class mail belonging to the old owners, but we sure got a lot of catalogs and junk. Lots of phone calls later, we got the address removed from the lists.