Suggested Activities

Listed below are suggested activities to highlight the week’s event:

• Have a NCPW kickoff and open house.
• Use the online versions of the “Fake Checks” DVDs, which can be viewed and downloaded from http://postalinspectors.uspis.gov/pressroom/videos.aspx.
• Invite a local expert to speak. A local postal inspector would be perfect, but a representative from a con­sumer advocacy group or an appropriate regulatory body would also be good.
• Invite a bank or credit union official to a sponsored event to talk about what could happen from the financial institution’s perspective (what’s expected, required fees if a fake check is deposited, etc.).
• If you can find someone willing to be identified as a victim, invite that person to speak as well. These are the kinds of stories reporters will attend an event to hear about.
• Collaborate with a financial institution to host an event about fake check schemes.
• Establish a partnership with other federal agencies, community groups, educational institutions, and businesses to sponsor educational workshops or seminars for consumers with special needs.
• Hold a joint news conference with another consumer agency and include a local postal inspector. The postal inspector can discuss fraud and the basics of financial literacy from both a national and community perspective.
• Work with a local postal inspector to inform senior citizens about fraud schemes. Hold seminars at local retirement communities. Postal inspectors can dis­cuss recent fraudulent schemes and steps to prevent older Americans from becoming victims.
• Provide your postal employees with information about NCPW activities planned for your area.
• Set up a booth at a busy shopping area and distrib­ute fraud prevention brochures and other consumer information. Show a fraud prevention video.
• Let customers know that for the third year in a row, the U.S. Postal Service was rated No. 1 among all federal agencies as the most trusted in protecting consumers’ privacy.
• Refer customers to www.usps.com AND www.FakeChecks.org for additional information.
• Hand out consumer publications such as:
• Publication 281, Consumer Fraud by Phone or Mail.
• Publication 300-A, U.S. Postal Inspection Service Guide To Preventing Mail Fraud.
• Publication 370, Extra Services.
• Publication 546, A Consumer’s Guide to Sweep­stakes and Lotteries.

The video drama, Truth or Consequences, produced by the Postal Inspection Service, can be viewed and down­loaded at http://postalinspectors.uspis.gov/pressroom/videos.aspx.

The publication Don’t Be a Victim of a Check Scam will also be available for download off the Web site.

Please work with your PAC contacts to create materials for reporters, including fact sheets and background mate­rials that will support interviews.

Check out the publications at the Postal Service PolicyNet Web site before placing an order. Go to http://blue.usps.gov/cpim and click on PUBs.

Publications can also be downloaded from the public Web site at www.usps.com.

Click on About USPS & News, then under “Organization information” click Forms & Publications, then click Postal Periodicals and Publications, and then click Publications.