USPS reports up to $16B in annual losses linked to mail theft, fraud
Every year, millions of packages are stolen from the mail — and the losses are devastating.
According to a semiannual United States Postal Service report to Congress , parcels valuing between $5.2 billion and $16 billion are stolen every year.
"Criminal activity involving Postal Service personnel continues to pose a challenge to the agency, especially as employees turn to outside criminal organizations seeking to exploit the vast postal network," the USPS Office of Inspector General said.
The OIG notes that because USPS employees are often involved, the damages are "significantly magnified."
In 2024, the USPS reported at least 58 million packages were stolen — each worth between $50 and $204.
Mail theft isn't a new issue, but it's one the USPS says it aggressively works to combat.
Mail theft
In 2025, the OIG partnered with the U.S. Postal Inspector Service to launch an investigation to take down a major mail theft operation responsible for $17 million in losses in Alabama, according to the congressional report.
In this case, a man recruited a postal employee to steal hundreds of checks addressed to businesses and local PO boxes. The "co-conspirator" would alter and sell the checks on a social media app with others involved in the scheme, the OIG reported.
The employee was arrested and sentenced to five years in prison and ordered to pay $230,000 back to her victims.
Her accomplice was ordered to pay the same amount and sentenced to eight years in prison after being found with more $10,000 in cash, drugs, a gun and $417,000 in stolen checks.
The bust is just one example of recovered funds and elaborate mail theft schemes affecting the USPS, according to the report.
The OIG closed 778 investigations and made 306 arrests between April and September 2025.
As a result, the OIG said it collected $17.8 million in stolen funds from restitutions, fines and recoveries.
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