Telegram is a globally popular free messaging app that promises strict privacy for its more than 700 million users. Encryption and other security features have allowed those in countries with restrictions on free speech to communicate on the platform without fear of being exposed. But a Scripps News investigation has found that those identity protections have also led criminals to use Telegram to sell stolen mail.
In April, Scripps News discovered a growing number of letter carriers getting attacked for their master keys that open blue mailboxes and cluster boxes outside apartments and office complexes. Thieves then use the keys to quickly steal what’s inside. U.
S. News Thousands of the proprietary U.S.
postal service keys, known as arrow keys, are now missing, according to records Scripps News obtained from the U.S Postal Inspection Service. A report issued by the postal inspection service in March said, "The rise in mail theft and violence against postal workers is exacerbated by trends in technology.
” The report named Telegram as one of multiple online platforms where stolen mail and postal keys are ending up for sale. The Scripps News investigative team joined Telegram and began browsing the app. It did not take long to discover group chats on the platform, open to anyone, where it appeared postal keys were being sold.
One key going for $1,000 was advertised as able to open mailboxes in New Jersey. A posting for another key claimed it could unlock boxes in “all luxu.
