Mail Fraud

Mail fraud is an act of fraud using the U.S. Postal Service, such as making false representations through the mail to obtain an economic advantage. In many ways, it is just simpler to realize that mail fraud is primarily devising a scheme or artifice to defraud and then using the nation's mail system to carry that scheme out. Like wire fraud, the potential prosecutorial application of the mail fraud is almost unlimited. Nonetheless, the mail fraud statutes, 18 U.S.C. §§ 1341 and 1342, have been applied in a wide variety of cases, often in conjunction with other criminal statutes such as controlled substances violations and/or various financial crimes.

18 U.S.C. § 1341 is a fairly complicated statute under which it is a crime for a person who has devised or intends to devise any scheme or artifice to defraud, or to sell, dispose of, loan, exchange, alter, give away, distribute, supply, or furnish or procure for unlawful use any counterfeit or spurious coin, obligation, security, or other article, or anything represented to be or intimated or held out to be such counterfeit or spurious article, for the purpose of executing such scheme or artifice, to place in any post office or authorized depository for mail matter, any matter or thing whatever to be sent or delivered by the Postal Service, or to deposit or cause to be deposited any matter or thing whatever to be sent or delivered by any private or commercial interstate carrier, or to take or receive therefrom, any such matter or thing, or to knowingly cause to be delivered by mail or such carrier according to the direction thereon, or at the place at which it is directed to be delivered by the person to whom it is addressed, any such matter or thing.

The punishment for a violation of section 1341 is a fine, imprisonment for not more than 20 years, or both. If the violation affects a financial institution, the punishment is a fine of not more than $1,000,000, imprisonment for not more than 30 years, or both.

18 U.S.C. § 1342 is a much simpler statute, but is less related to the common idea of "mail fraud," however as public concern about identity theft mount federal prosecutors have begun to more aggressively utilize this section. Under section 1342 it is a crime for a person for the purpose of conducting, promoting, or carrying on by means of the Postal Service, any scheme or device proscribed by section 1341, or any other unlawful business to use or assume, or request to be addressed by any fictitious, false, or assumed title, name or address or name other than his own proper name, or to take or receive from any post office or authorized depository or mail matter any letter, postal card, package, or other mail matter addressed to any such fictitious name or address or to any name or address not his own.

The punishment for a violation of section 1342 is a fine, imprisonment for not more than five years, or both.