Exploiting the Postal Service Address System for Personal Gain

by Tj Loposser

The U.S. Postal Service address system has a basic setup of four components: street name, house or apartment number, city, and ZIP Code.

Most of you have seen ways of getting stuff for free or at highly reduced prices, but they will have a maximum number per household on them.  So here is how you can modify your address and still get these items delivered to you.  As long as you also take note to use a different name or a variation of your name on each address, it should pass all automated checks and most physical checks, especially if you allow a little time between orders.

Breaking it down, there are two components that cannot be messed with or your failure rate will go too high to make it worthwhile.  The first one is the ZIP Code.

In the modern world, the ZIP Code is read electronically and that chooses the sorting location, so we cannot change that without raising the failure rate considerably.  The other is the house or apartment number.  Granted, you can add stuff to these, like, for example, if yours is 7024, you could use 7024A and in the ordering computer it would be counted as two addresses.

But then you have to worry about your mail carrier getting confused, since this is what they go by and they look at it by hand.  But on the other hand, your street name can be changed phonetically or through spelling or by using variations of the same wording.  Mail will still get sent to the same address, but be seen as a separate address.  And your city name can be changed greatly, as long as you only change it and stick to a perfect street address and ZIP Code.  Your mail will come to you.

Examples:

Standard address:

3053 Caryville Rd. 
Pandora, KY 34564

Usable examples that would work:

3053 Karyville Rd.
Pandora, KY 34564

3053 Caryville Rd.
Fandora, KY 34564

3053 Carryville Road
Pandora, KY 34564

3053 Carysville Rd.
Pendora, KY 34564

There are countless ways of changing addresses, and, in the world of computerized ordering systems that require a one-to-one match, these would pass the test but still get delivered to the regular address.

Another trick is to find old street addresses for your home that legally still have to be delivered to you.  As most areas grew, the addresses changed.

When the 911 system was rolled out, there were also changes made to addresses.  At one house I lived in as a child, there were three separate addresses that could be used.  My current home has at least two, so a little bit of footwork could increase your abilities even further.

Have fun and good luck.

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