Cobb County

Man says someone forwarded his mail, opened credit cards in his name

COBB COUNTY, Ga. — A Cobb County man credits his postal carrier with alerting him to a case of identity theft.

"I found out from the postman the mail had been stopped," said Steve Mathis.

Mathis's letter carrier showed him paperwork ordering the postal service to forward the Mathis family's mail to an address in Washington state. Mathis was able to look through a stack of mail that was set to be sent cross-country.

"Inside was a credit card, one was in my name and one was in someone else's name, whom I didn't know," Mathis told Channel 2's Jim Strickland.

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Mathis said he's since received several sets of cards and is afraid his identity breach may be prolonged.

"To apply for these cards, you have to have Social (Security number), birthdate, and this person had all of my information," he said.

The imposter also fooled the post office into changing the address.

Online, the postal service needs a credit card to verify the identity of the person forwarding the mail.

"I'm really at a loss as to how all this has gotten out," Mathis said.