As if we need another reminder about how bad the economy is, my mail has been tampered with in four separate instances within the past 30 days. The first was an opened letter and not just any letter - it contained a credit card that I had applied for. I immediately called to request a new number and card only to find out that a separate letter had been sent with my PIN number - a letter I never received.

The third instance was another opened letter, this time a full page packet. The fourth and most recent occurence was this past Friday, where I received a letter that appeared to have been opened and reglued shut. There is someone at home to receive the mail so it is unlikely that this occurred after the mail drop. Because the opened letters were sent from different locations, I suspect that the tampering happened locally. I filed a report with the US Postal Investigation Service and visited the closest post office to raise my concerns. The post office was rather unhelpful, indicating the most they could do was try to keep an eye on our letters and there aren't really any guarantees with the USPIS.

This is really messed up.