What:
Postal Service officials and U.S. Postal Inspectors will host an informational seminar at the Cumberland Crossing Manor senior community to educate attendees on “Recognizing and Preventing Frauds and Scams” in conjunction with the 13th Annual National Consumer Protection Week. Postal Inspectors will provide consumers with valuable information to protect themselves from financial schemes as well as ways to report suspected financial fraud.

Two out of three adults say they receive at least one potential scam contact per week. Officials will present safeguarding tips to help increase awareness about financial schemes and proven strategies to protect individual assets and identity, as well as, ways to report suspected financial fraud.

Who:
U.S. Postal Inspector Staci Johnson and Western PA District Consumer Affairs Manager Mark Wahl

When:
11:30 a.m.
Thursday, March 11, 2011

Where:
Greenfield Senior Community Center
745 Greenfield Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15217

Background:
National Consumer Protection Week, set for March 6-12, is a national program led by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to help customers become smarter consumers of products, materials and services, and improve their knowledge of how to combat fraud schemes.

The U.S. Postal Service Office of Consumer Affairs and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service are working to educate consumers about fraudulent schemes and how they can protect themselves. The Postal Service will provide consumers with the tools and information needed to combat these types of crimes.

There’s no age limit on fraud. This year, the Postal Service and the Postal Inspection Service are working together to educate all consumers how they can protect themselves from scammers.

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A self-supporting government enterprise, the U.S. Postal Service is the only delivery service that reaches every address in the nation, 150 million residences, businesses and Post Office Boxes. The Postal Service receives no tax dollars for operating expenses, and relies on the sale of postage, products and services to fund its operations. With 32,000 retail locations and the most frequently visited website in the federal government, usps.com, the Postal Service has annual revenue of more than $67 billion and delivers nearly 40 percent of the world’s mail. If it were a private sector company, the U.S. Postal Service would rank 29th in the 2010 Fortune 500. Black Enterprise and Hispanic Business magazines ranked the Postal Service as a leader in workforce diversity. The Postal Service has been named the Most Trusted Government Agency six consecutive years and the sixth Most Trusted Business in the nation by the Ponemon Institute.