LetterAgent
Mail physical letters by just asking your AI assistant.
Mail fraud is using the postal system to carry out a scheme to cheat someone: fake lottery wins, goods that never ship, phony invoices. It is different from mail theft, which is stealing mail that isn't yours. Report suspected mail fraud to the US Postal Inspection Service (USPIS) at uspis.gov, and in Canada to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre. This is general information, not legal advice.
The core idea is simple: someone devises a scheme to defraud people of money or property, and uses the mail to carry it out. Classic examples are everywhere once you know the pattern: "you've won a lottery you never entered" letters demanding a processing fee, invoices for services you never ordered, products ordered online that never ship, fake charity solicitations, and work-from-home offers that turn out to be check-cashing schemes. The lie is the fraud; the envelope is what makes it mail fraud.
Three things people get wrong about it. First, the scheme does not have to succeed. If the letter went out as part of a fraudulent scheme, it can count even if nobody paid. Second, intent is what matters: an honest billing mistake is not mail fraud, a deliberate scheme is. Third, each mailed item can be treated as its own offense, which is why large-scale schemes carry such heavy exposure. That last point is also why investigators take bulk reports seriously: one report of a suspicious letter is a tip, and fifty reports of the same letter are a case.
They are different crimes handled by different instincts, and mixing them up sends your report to the wrong place:
| Mail fraud | Mail theft | |
|---|---|---|
| What happened | Someone used the mail to run a scheme against you | Someone stole, opened, or tampered with your mail |
| The wrongdoer | The sender of the deceptive mail | Whoever took the mail, often a stranger |
| Report to (US) | US Postal Inspection Service at uspis.gov | US Postal Inspection Service too, and local police for theft |
| Report to (Canada) | Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre | Canada Post and local police |
In the US both go to the Postal Inspection Service, which is the law-enforcement arm of USPS, but the report forms and the investigations are different. In Canada, fraud goes to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre, while theft of mail goes to Canada Post and your local police. If you are not sure which one you experienced, describe the facts and let the agency sort it out: that is literally their job.
Start by preserving the evidence. Keep the original envelope, not just the letter: the postmark, the return address, and any postage markings are evidence, and throwing away the envelope destroys half of what investigators use. Do not throw anything out until the matter is resolved.
Then file the report. In the US, go to uspis.gov and file a mail fraud complaint with the Postal Inspection Service: you can do it online, and you should include photos or scans of the letter and the envelope. In Canada, report to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre, which collects fraud reports for law enforcement across the country. If you lost money, also tell your bank or card issuer: fraud reporting and getting your money back are separate processes, and the second one has its own deadlines.
One more step people skip: check whether the same scheme is targeting others. A quick search of the sender's name, the "company" name, or a distinctive phrase from the letter often turns up other victims, consumer warnings, or an existing investigation. Save anything you find; it can support your report.
Set expectations honestly. Investigators look for patterns across many reports, and a single complaint about one letter may sit in a file for a long time before anything visible happens. That does not mean the report was wasted: large mail fraud cases are built from exactly these files. You are unlikely to get running updates on the investigation, and reporting fraud does not by itself get your money back. If you are out money, pursue that separately through your bank, your card issuer, or small claims court, and keep copies of everything you sent to the investigators.
Ready to mail it? Send your letter with LetterAgent: describe it to your AI assistant, approve the exact quoted price, and it is printed and mailed.
LetterAgent is a working name. Prices include print, postage, and our service fee. US prices in USD, Canadian prices in CAD (Canadian prices exclude applicable sales tax, added at checkout). Currently in private testing.
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