Monday, March 2, 2026
There’s a new way scammers are targeting victims
The Inspection Service is warning of artificial intelligence-backed attempts to commit fraud
The Postal Inspection Service is reminding employees and customers during National Consumer Protection Week March 1-7 to beware of artificial intelligence scams.
Scammers are now using artificial intelligence, or AI, tools to make their schemes appear more believable.
AI can generate lookalike photos, clone voices and compose wording in texts and emails to build trust with a victim. This can result in romance scams, investment scams, illegitimate tech support calls and fake emergency requests from friends and family.
Here are characteristics of AI scams:
• The “person” contacting you has an inconsistent, newly created profile with very few social media friends. The comments don’t seem natural, and the images don’t match the profile details.
• The website is not secure, and it requests login information.
• An email address doesn’t match the website domain — such as john.doe@usps.us.com.
• Images or screenshots seem fabricated.
• You are asked to communicate through an encrypted messaging app, such as WhatsApp or Telegram, or a separate, private email address — all of which can be a scammer’s way to bypass a social media platform’s security protocols.
• The speaker’s movements are irregular, the lip sync timing is off, the lighting is unnatural or the voice does not match the purported person being represented.
• The offer pitched to you involves guaranteed high returns, pressure to recruit others or exclusive private opportunities.
If you think you have been the victim of an AI scam, take immediate action:
• Stop communicating with the alleged scammer and save all messages and transaction records.
• Contact the bank or payment provider to trace or stop all fund transfers.
• Report the scam to local police if you were threatened or lost a significant sum of money. If you used cryptocurrency, tracing will be difficult, but early reporting increases the chance of recovering your funds.
• Change your passwords and enable multifactor authentication if you shared login information.
• Initiate fraud alerts and enact a credit freeze with the three major credit reporting bureaus if you shared sensitive financial data.
If the scam involved the U.S. Mail in any way, report it to postal inspectors online or call 877-876-2455.
The Inspection Service’s National Consumer Protection Week page has more information.
Heroes
She heard screams coming from inside a house
This letter carrier rescued a customer who fell down the stairs
Letter Carrier Kaitlynn Roberson was delivering mail recently in Olean, NY, when she heard a customer screaming from inside a home.
The Postal Service employee looked through the window and saw a woman lying on the floor at the bottom of the stairs.
The customer had fallen down the stairs and had been lying there for nearly six hours. Roberson entered the home, called 911 and stayed with the woman until paramedics arrived.
The customer was taken to a nearby hospital where she had surgery on both broken femurs. She continues to recover.
Employees featured in “Heroes” receive letters of commendation through the Postmaster General Heroes’ Program. The nomination formis available on Blue.
Week in Review
Here’s what Link covered Feb. 22-28
Three new stamps and a documentary on a legendary WWII postal unit made news
It’s high season for stamp releases, as a quick look at last week’s Link headlines shows.
Three new stamp releases were issued: Harriet Powers, which honors the formerly enslaved woman who turned quilting into art; and Crab Nebula and Galaxy Pair, which feature images of deep space taken by the James Webb Space Telescope. They are for Priority Mail and Priority Mail Express, respectively.
We also brought you details about the second installment in the Stamps Forever website’s “Celebrating Stamp Encore” series; this latest article focuses on the many Warner Bros. releases in last summer’s contest.
And we looked at “Two Wars: No Mail, Low Morale,” a documentary airing on PBS about the legendary 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion, a segregated unit of the Women’s Army Corps that famously cleared a two-year backlog of mail in six months.
And we shared some hard-won lessons about the importance of wearing seat belts and about the power of resilience, as the workers at the Altadena, CA, Post Office soldier on a year after a fire devastated their facility and routes.
“People” reported on the death of Roman King, Philadelphia’s postmaster, at the age of 55; and “Off the Clock” spotlighted Gary Harned, who paints landscapes when he’s not working as an electronic technician in Grand Junction, CO.
Finally, “Heroes” told the story of Kaitlynn Roberson, an Olean, NY, letter carrier who looked through a home’s window when she heard screaming.
The postal employee saw the customer laying at the bottom of the stairs, so she entered the home, called 911 and stayed with the woman until help arrived.
The customer was taken to a nearby hospital, where it was determined she had broken both femurs. She continues to recover.
Email us your feedback. Your comments could be included in our “Mail” column.