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  1. #1
    Join Date
    May 2014
    Posts
    2

    Exclamation Opening Misaddressed Mail

    My question involves criminal law for the state of: CT

    I've been receiving business credit card offers with promotional codes to my home address. I used these promotional codes to open cards for rewards points using MY OWN business information which were approved with no problem.

    Today, I received my my 4th or 5th targeted offer and discovered to my shock, that these targeted offers were not addressed to me. It is my home address, but the business name is not mine. There is no individual person's name. These envelopes do not have the address on the front, but they have it on the back so I just assumed they were targeted to me.

    Moreover, the letters inside do not contain a specific business or individual name or address. They were just generic letters addressed to "Dear Business Owner:". Finally during the application process, while using the promotion code, there was no mention of any other business or that the promotion code was targeted to another.

    I wanted to make sure I'm not in some kind of trouble here. I opened the envelopes in good faith thinking they were mine since they were in my mailbox, not some mail fraud where I'm cashing other people's checks or stealing their identity. Moreover, they're still sending me the same targeted offer, so I did not deprive anyone of the opportunity to apply because even after using some targeted offers, they keep sending me new ones with the same rewards points promotion.

    I've read Mr. Knowitalls posts here where he believes KNOWINGLY conversion of misdirected mail would constitute a crime. But here I unknowingly opened the mail which contained generic letters with no identifying business or personal information. Also read the legal definition of conversion must be real property but doesn't say anything about a marketing offer. Let me know what you guys think or if there is any action I need to take to be on the right side of the law and what I should do now. Thank you.


    http://www.expertlaw.com/forums/show...t=33129&page=3

    I can see the statute being applied to somebody who knowingly converts misdirected mail (you cash a check addressed to your neighbor, but mistakenly delivered to you)

    I'll concede that, thirty or so years ago, there was apparently a split between the circuits largely consistent with my prior statements - most circuits saying "the law ends when the addressee removes the mail from the mailbox" and a few circuits extending the law to the theft or conversion of misdelivered mail by the addressee

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Sep 2005
    Location
    Behind a Desk
    Posts
    98,846

    Default Re: Opening Misaddressed Mail

    If these are generically addressed offers, what makes you believe they were not intended for you?

  3. #3
    Join Date
    May 2014
    Posts
    2

    Default Re: Opening Misaddressed Mail

    I know the most recent letter, the envelope was not addressed to me. The address was mine but there was a business name I didn't recognize which I realized after opening the envelope. For the previous offers, I never looked at the back of the envelope so I have no idea. All the letter contents were always generic.

    I spoke to a federal defense lawyer and he said I would never be prosecuted for something like this - does that sound right to you Mr. Knowitall?

    I think when I started googling opening mail delivered to you with your address but not your name I started scaring myself. Some people post crazy stuff online with enormous penalties that don't seem reasonable now for something that's an honest mistake.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Sep 2005
    Location
    Behind a Desk
    Posts
    98,846

    Default Re: Opening Misaddressed Mail

    I don't think that there's a realistic chance of a company, sending out junk mail credit card application forms, is going to follow up to determine if the intended recipient moved and, if so, what happened to the application form. About the only way I could see this being an issue is if you tried to obtain a credit card while claiming to be or to represent the intended recipient, which is a matter quite apart from opening the mail.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Sep 2012
    Posts
    1,991

    Default Re: Opening Misaddressed Mail

    As long as you don't cut the tags off any mattresses you should be fine.

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Jan 2008
    Location
    Toledo, OH
    Posts
    16,307

    Default Re: Opening Misaddressed Mail

    Concur with Mr. K. These companies buy mailing lists and just blast their offers out at whoever is on the list. It's not unusual to get junk like this addressed to deceased people, defunct businesses, and even the previous tenant's cat.

    If you've filled out the forms in your own name, with your own info, you're in the clear.

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