Hypothetical question: If an envelope was mailed to your

[Fire1]

address with someone else's name on it and no return address would you open it? Secondly, if you DID open it and found a check for a substantial amount of money would you attempt to return it via the post office OR try to cash the check?

I'm in disagreement with someone regarding this question. I say, return the check to the post office.

[ecstatic]

1. I always send it back. I don't even look to see if there is

a return address.

[Fla_Democrat]

2. I'd

I'd try contacting the person/company that issued the check.

[slackmaster]

3. Yes, I would open it

As for the check, I'd attempt to contact the person who wrote it, or (if that is not possible) the drawee bank.

...would you attempt to return it via the post office OR try to cash the check?

Attempting to cash it would be fraud.

[Fire1]

10. THANK YOU! n/t

[alstephenson]

4. No. And no.

[FormerDittoHead]

5. Did the check have your name on it?

Of course it didn't. To try and cash the check would be forgery / fraud.

Personally, I'd throw it out, but I know the 'right thing' to do would be to return it to the PO.

on edit: what I didn't write was that I assume 1) the WAS addressed to my house (I get a letter every other week in my mailbox NOT this address) and that there wasn't a return address nor was there any address on the check.

[AndyA]

6. I would mail the check back to the address that appears on the check.

Tell them the person they sent it to no longer lives at the address, and advise them if they had provided a return address on the envelope as they should have, it would have been returned to them unopened.

Then tell them if they're just being generous, you could find lots of uses for the money. ;)

[yawnmaster]

7. I might or might not open it. but if the money isn't intended for me, its not mine.

I'd open it if there where some chance it was for me but someone got the name wrong.
Otherwise, return to post office.
Also, in your scenario, is someone trying to cash a check that is not made out to them?

[SalviaBlue]

8. Yes I would open. No I would not dream of trying to cash.

If there was a return address on the check I would send there otherwise I would distroy it. I would not send it to the post office.

[Fire1]

18. Why not return it from whence it came and let them figure it out?

[SalviaBlue]

19. You said it had no return address.

If there is no return address, the Post Office will not be able to track either. So I would destroy the check... the sender will figure it out eventually.

[Spazito]

9. I would not open it, I would send the mail back having circled the...

name and written on the envelope it is the wrong address for that person.

[AngryAmish]

11. Go to the bank the check was drawn on - they know whose it is

[JackRiddler]

12. What's your point?

You couldn't cash the check, in fact you'd subject yourself to criminal charges if you tried, so no such temptation could even arise.

[Fire1]

14. Not only THAT but the various means and measures to return

the mail. I'm of the opinion that it would be best to turn it over to the post office.

[BlueJazz]

13. I'd just return it to the mail-person.

[Fire1]

15. Yes or the post office. n/t

[Obamanaut]

16. If my name is not on the envelope, I write across the face of the

envelope "no such person at this address" and give it back to the mail carrier. Not having a return address is not my concern. So, I never find out about the check.

[petronius]

17. That did happen to me once, except the envelope was already open (bad glue)

and it contained a check for ~$1500. (I usually don't open things like that - I just write "not at this address" and drop it in the outgoing - but in this case it wasn't sealed.) After some thought, I realized the adressee was a neighbor, and the unit # was wrong.

Trying to cash a check in those circumstances would be unacceptable, IMO...

[Hekate]

20. It would be neither my money nor my letter in the first place. It returns to the PO unopened...

Any other use constitutes some sort of fraud, especially the check-cashing part.

We frequently receive misdirected mail. We write on the front what the problem is: Not at this address or Wrong street or whatever it is, and stick it back in the mailbox. The Contents Do Not Belong To Us.

Hekate

[Fire1]

21. I totally agree. Looks like I'm not such a schmuck after all. n/t