Postal Re-Mailing for Privacy

When you send a letter through the United States Postal Service (USPS) a postmark from the post office where it was mailed (or more likely the area postal processing center) is affixed to the letter, canceling the stamp and showing the general area where the letter was mailed.

While a postmark does not reveal the address of the sender of a letter, it does reveal the general area in which you live, or at least where you were when you mailed the letter. If you are trying to conceal your location, you will need to take steps to ensure that a postmark does not give you away.

As one re-mailing service says: "There are many legitimate reasons [that you might want to use a re-mailing service]. Maybe you are a whistleblower using your legal protection of anonymity to report something important while avoiding retaliation. Perhaps you're an absentee parent or estranged family member hoping to update a child or other relative without revealing your whereabouts. You may be a person trying to expand an online relationship with a personal letter and do not yet wish to reveal your physical location to your online friend."

The reasons for using a re-mailing service goes on:

• Providing important information to someone anonymously
• Privacy of your real location or address while travelling
• Correspondence with friends or family without revealing your location
• Get a letter to an ex-spouse without disclosing where you live
• Report an illegal activity to law enforcement

and... many other reasons that may apply to your personal situation and privacy requirements.

 

There are postal re-mailing services that will re-mail your letters and packages for a fee of around $2.00 per letter and $5.00 per package.

It is interesting to note that the USPS also provides a simple re-mailing service for people who want a postmark as part of a special occasion or holiday. For example, if you would like a postmark from a town with a "romantic" name for Valentine’s Day, the USPS provides this service. The USPS says: "Post Offices with Valentine’s Day Names. Interested customers can write to these Post Offices for postmarks to keep or to share with friends.  Enclose a stamped, addressed card or letter in another envelope or box labeled "Valentine re-mailing" and address it to the postmaster of one of the towns listed below. Please allow enough time for postmarking, re-mailing, and delivery."

You don’t have to wait for Valentine’s Day, or some other holiday to use this re-mailing technique for privacy purposes. Although not the most common of hobbies, people do collect postmarks from different locations. Using the Valentine’s Day technique, you can have a letter re-mailed from any post office at any time. Just, enclose a stamped, addressed card or letter in another envelope and send it to the Post Master of the post office from where you would like it re-mailed. When the Post Master opens the outer envelope, he or she has the inner envelope which is properly addressed with the required postage affixed, and it must be entered into the mail as any other letter.

Sending a letter to the Post Master for re-mailing works well for sending letters, but for re-mailing of packages, as well as having other services related to re-mailing, you will need to work with a re-mailing service. A few postal re-mailing services are listed below.

Rapid Remailer
Radicarian LLC
25878 SE Hwy 19
Old Town, Florida 32680
http://www.rapidremailer.com/
$2.00 per letter
$5.00 per package

Chicago Re-mailing Service
2413 W. Algonquin Road, Suite 422
Algonquin, IL 60102
http://chicagoremailingservice.com
$2.00 per letter
$5.00 per package

Midwest Remailer
DDB Solns
PO Box 220
Harrison, OH 45030
http://midwestremailer.com/index.html
$2.00 per letter or three for $5.00

TTI Mail Services
Post Office Box 675
Occoquan, VA  22125-0675
https://www.snailmailforwarding.com
$2.00 per letter re-mailed from N. VA
$3.00 per letter re-mailed from Washington, DC

Rapid Remailers
c/o 9414 West 120th Terrace # 15
Overland Park, KS 66213
https://postmarkhere.com
$1.00 per letter

 

Receiving Mail Without Disclosing Your Address

Sending mail from an alternate location (having a letter re-mailed) is fairly easy, but how do you receive mail without disclosing your actual address? 

One way to do this is General Delivery mail.

According to the United States Postal Service web-site:

Get your mail even if you’re on the road, new to town, or between permanent addresses. Mail addressed to you at General Delivery will be held at the area’s main Post Office for up to 30 days. All you have to do is pick it up.

General Delivery is a great choice if you don’t have a permanent address. People can send you mail by using the town name and ZIP Code, like this...

JOHN DOE
GENERAL DELIVERY
ANYTOWN, NY 12345-9999

In medium to large cities with multiple ZIP Codes, you’ll want to make sure senders use the ZIP Code for the area’s main Post Office. The ZIP+4 extension 9999 indicates general delivery.

The advantage of General Delivery is that you don’t have to have a permanent or local address to use it. In fact, it is designed for people who don’t have a permanent address. When picking up General Delivery mail you will be asked to show ID that matches the name on the mail you are picking up. If you regularly receive General Delivery mail, the post office may require you to fill out  PS Form 1527 "Application for General Delivery Service", but there are no fees to pay for General Delivery. Whether you are asked to fill out the PS 1527 or not, you can receive mail by General Delivery without disclosing your real address to the sender. Normally only the main post office in an area will provide General Delivery service, but it's a simple matter to check with your local post master to find out where you can receive General Delivery mail.

I have previously written about using the Street Addressing option offered by some post offices when a 'street address' is required, and of course just having a PO Box at a post office adds a layer of privacy to your actual physical address.

Another option is to use a mail forwarding service that meets the needs of frequent travelers. Once such service is the Escapees RV Club - Mail Forwarding Service. With this type of service you can have a mailing address in a different state. The service receives and holds your mail, and then forwards it to you upon receiving your instruction to do so. Escapees RV Club is a commercial mail receiving agent (CMRA) and like many CMRA charge around $200 per year for their services. Still, as a way to conceal your physical location, and as a way to receive postal mail while traveling, this type of service may be worth the money.

If you want to receive packages without disclosing your address to the sender, both FedEx and UPS have hold for pick up options at any FedEx or UPS location respectively. When using a hold for pick up option it's important to know for sure what carrier will be delivering your package. You don't want to end up with a hold at FedEx location package addressed to your local UPS Store.

Combining a CMRA with a USPS street addressing option, or a hold at a FedEx or UPS location can add multiple layers of privacy around your true physical location. However, the more layers your mail must pass through, the longer it will take for you to receive it.