**** The information written here is not legal advice and the author of this blog is not your lawyer. These posts merely contain ideas to help you plan and organize your legal research and identify potentially helpful sources of law. ****
It is a federal crime to intercept mail. Opening and reading someone else’s mail is a crime above and beyond that.[i] Even though most federal crimes are investigated by the FBI, those relating to mail are handled by the postal inspection service. The crimes are identified in Title 18 of the U.S. Code Chapter 83
That section, titled “Obstruction of mails generally,” states that anyone who “knowingly and willfully obstructs or retards the passage of the mail” will be fined and/or imprisoned for up to six months. Section 1702 says that taking mail out of a mail box or from a mail carrier, “before it has been delivered to the person to whom it was directed, with design to obstruct correspondence, or to pry into the business or secrets of another, or opens, secretes, embezzles, or destroys the same, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than five years, or both.”
These sound like clear crimes, but they become convoluted if someone is having mail delivered to another person’s address and the address holder feels some degree of responsibility to watch for checks or important messages. If there has been some agreement between a homeless person and an address holder giving the address holder permission to open and preview mail, then there probably won’t be anybody filing a complaint to the postal inspector alleging that the mail has been obstructed.
The person with the right to file that kind of complaint would be the person named in the mail. This is an example of when it can be very helpful to have a written agreement identifying responsibilities and expectations. In fact, an address holder would be wise to get written permission if a homeless friend has asked that mail be opened. That way, if there is ever a legal complaint that he was obstructing correspondence or prying into secrets, the address holder can prove that he was not opening the mail for those reasons, he was opening it to only satisfy the request of the homeless person.
The federal law against “theft or receipt of stolen mail matter generally” supports the right of homeless people to get their mail even if they have arranged to have it sent to an address where they don’t live and they have authorized someone to open it and see what’s inside. That law, in Title 18 Section 1708 forbids taking or trying to take mail or even one item contained within a mailed package or envelope. An address holder with written permission to open mail who does open the mail, but then uses something in that mail for his own benefit or simply doesn’t hand it over, has committed a federal crime.
If any of these obstruction or theft of mail crimes seems to have occurred, there are two ways that a victim can file a complaint with the Postal Inspection Service: 1. by making a report in person at any post office, which will involve completing a form and then being available for the postal inspector’s follow-up investigation or 2. by completing the complaint form available on the home page of the Postal Inspection Service.
[i] http://assembler.law.cornell.edu/uscode/html/uscode18/usc_sup_01_18_10_I_20_83.html
Homeless Law Blog 
yes
there is a new BETA service from USPS to open, scan, and email-deliver your mail.
This is patently unwise via SMTP as it is OBVIOUSLY NOT a point-to-point transfer.
NDA likely hides SMTP conveys an https “secure” URL with basic auth to view scanned documents
Xmpp Texting: RayHelp@chatme.xyz/otr
Free yourselves from the domination of COSTLY sms texting and I’ll do my best to help where I can. Xmpp is not email. OTR encryption required for privacy and security.
I recieve my own mail at my place of residence and I live alone so therefore no one here allowed or given an ok to recieve my mail.
Passing a law making opening mail a crime should have been a crime to arrest people for something they aren’t doing wrong.
My mother steals my mail freely. We live together in her home, so she feels entitled to wake me, take belongings from me, damage my property, and steal my mail. Do I have any recourse?
Hello. I am in need of some advice please. I recently found out that mail I was sending to my husband while I was in a women’s recovery place has been getting opened& read without my knowledge or consent. Also there are a few letters he hasn’t even gotten and should have. Isn’t that against the law
You can report mail theft to the Postal Inspection Service.
The united states postal inspectors is the ones getting away opening people mail and taking what they want. I know because a phone with minutes were taken from me at my home by: A.L.Ellison returned my phone nor reimbursed me for my phone nor minutes of over 200 minutes. Called to see if I wanted that phone back after 2 years where they had bugged my phone. She took a bunch of stuff when She searched the house without a search warrant and should be made to straighten out everything everywhere that She went to clear things backup with the USPS main headquarters to apologize for all of the places She went trying to destroy my name.
Does my supervisor have the right to open mail sent to me at work? The peace of mail was a check sent by our corporate office to me with check in it to me. If there was anything else in the envelope I Bo not know because it was opened when he handed it to me thanks
my mother and opens my mail without my premission. keeps stealing from me.Without my premission.