National Handwriting Week
How Safe is Your Mail?
(postal fraud, busted by forensic document examiner)
This is National Handwriting Week. To some this may not have much meaning, but to those who have been a victim of fraud and have been redeemed by a handwriting expert the dedication of such a week becomes meaningful. I am one of those redeemed victims. Allow me to explain. Question, how safe is your mail? Fraudulent mail transfers can cause more problems than you could ever imagine. Are you aware that anyone may put in a change of address for you? The post office does not require identification. The change can even be made through the mail or internet. Therefore, you would never be alerted to its existence until after the fact. Being a victim of this action has changed my life forever.
My husband and I opened our mail one day and read a letter from the US Postal Service. It was a confirmation letter, stating that our mail had been “transferred”, to an unfamiliar address, an address that was not ours. In fact, it wasn’t a true or viable address. We had lived at the same address for eleven years and had no intention of moving. Someone spuriously had our mail transferred.
At first we had no idea who may have done this. For me, the most difficult part was knowing there was someone out there who wanted to do us harm. I could not rest until I knew who was responsible, why had they done this, and what their next move might be.
I went to the post office to get a copy of the change of address; which was not an easy task. It was only after asking if I needed to bring law enforcement into the matter that I received a copy. Once the change of address was in my possession, I started to get handwriting samples. I acquired three handwriting samples from the person of whom we were somewhat suspicious. I went over and over the handwriting samples, finding them to be very similar. We believed we had our person, but how were we to prove it? I then began searching the Internet for handwriting experts. I found one name that always came up and who appeared to have a tremendous amount of experience. So I called a court qualified handwriting expert and forensic document examiner In a very short time, he had our answer! Our original suspicions were correct. When I turned in our police and post office reports, we had concrete evidence to support them.
His answer meant so much to us; and although our mail delivery has never returned to normal, we had found the answer to who had committed this crime.
As I stated earlier, this horrendous experience has changed my life forever. During my experience, one thing led to another and I am now a “Forensic Document Examiner” I have found this profession to be both exciting and rewarding.
Document examining is the scientific examination of documents, the outcome of which can alter lives forever. In a world of forgeries, thefts, stolen identities, etc., the public should be aware that Forensic Document Examiners and Handwriting Experts exist. Should anyone be confronted with any of these situations, services are available to help them through the terrible nightmare. Thus, there is no better time to increase public awareness of these valuable services than during National Handwriting Week.
by Sandra S. Basye fde
