December 9, 2019 - Mayor's Column

During this joyous time of the year when our shopping goes into overdrive, sadly we have to be mindful that there are thieves who will use our purchasing power as an opportunity to steal. Package thieves in particular are hard at work during the holiday season. The pickings are ripe when you can drive through a neighborhood and see packages sitting on front porches that won’t be touched for hours. To avoid this scenario, there are alternatives when gifts need to be shipped to you.

Package Delivery Safety

Perhaps send them to your office, though due to the increased volume of packages, many businesses are no longer receptive to the idea of your personal purchases being delivered to your place of business. As a result, Amazon has over 100 “hub lockers” in Manhattan alone that are secure delivery sites.

Request re-route or re-delivery .You can request a package be held at the delivery facility or rerouted to another location or delivered on another day if you know your home will be unattended on the projected delivery date.

Call UPS or FedEx once you have a tracking number and have them hold the package at their facility for pick up later.

Ask a neighbor who may be at home more often than you are to receive your packages.

Purchase a new mailbox with secured access.

Doorbell video cameras have also proven to be a great deterrent. As point of fact, 100,000 of these were sold nationwide in 2015 vs 1.2 million sold so far this year.

In a recent article on the subject in the New York Times, it was noted that over 90,000 packages a day are stolen or disappear without explanation in New York City. This is an increase of approximately 20% just from four years ago and the Times estimated that about 15% of all deliveries nationwide in urban areas fail to reach customers.

It is estimated that one in five citizens has had a package stolen and the FBI  estimates the number to be much higher as people often seek reimbursement from the online retailer or credit card company and never report to police departments.

Data Theft

According to the IRS, more than 90% of all data thefts begin with email phishing scams. The most common way to steal identities is simply by asking for them. The favorite tactic is a phishing email baiting users into opening them by posing as trusted companies such as a bank, a favorite retailer or even a tax professional. They usually tell an urgent story such as there’s a problem with your account or your order and then their message instructs you to open an embedded link or download an attachment.

Using strong passwords and keeping them secure are critical steps to preventing thieves from stealing identities, money or even information to file a fraudulent tax return. In recent years, cyber security experts’ recommendation on what constitutes a strong password has changed. They now suggest people use phrases that are easy to remember, rather than random letters, characters and numbers that cannot be readily recalled. For example, experts previously suggested PXro 30) as a strong password type sequence but now suggest longer phrases such as “something you can remember @30”. By using a memorable phrase, users don’t have to write down their password and expose it to additional risk. Also people may be more willing to use stronger, longer passwords if it’s a phrase rather than random characters that are harder to remember. The experts recommend using a minimum of eight characters, but even longer is better and use a combination of letters, numbers and symbols.

General Purchasing Scams

As a rule, do not pay for items or donate via a wire transfer, prepaid card or even bank to bank account transfer.