I've followed a lot of posts that start with something like "My pack never arrived" or "my pack hasn't arrived yet and it's been ten days" or "I always get plenty of mail and my mailbox has been empty for the past week" ..."is LE watching my mail?" etc.
My friend developed a system that he uses as part of routine OPSEC that provides some insight and intel here, however imperfect. And I wanted to get your opinions on this.
Periodically (once every month or so) he will grab a DVD case or a couple of magazines and take a nice drive to a post office in the suburbs some 20 - 30 miles away. He then grabs one of those standard priority mail envelopes, addresses it to himself, and drops the contents in. Sometimes after sealing he will discreetly put a couple of tiny hash marks over the seal just out of curiosity to see if the hash marks are still there, or if they are aligned upon arrival. Finally, he buys a stamp from one of those kiosks and requests a tracking receipt.
He'll then send the pack to his house, using a fake, real return address. Sometimes the pack arrives as scheduled. On a couple of rare occasions it's been delayed by a day. None of the packs have ever appeared to have been tampered with, though some have arrived with dents or small tears. After arrival he uses the tracking number to follow where the packs went thru the system and takes notes.
On other less frequent occasions he'll send two packs, one to himself and another to a friend - perhaps a real gift or a gag gift that makes sense given their relationship. He then tracks the movement of those thru the system, making sure his hasn't arrived a day later.
If he has a friend he believes he can really trust that lives several states away, he may involve him in this scenario, having him very occasionally send a similar dummy pack with tracking. Then upon arrival, he'll use the tracking info to take a close look at where the package was going thru the system, taking notes.
I realize that post offices have cameras everywhere, including at the kiosk machines. As far as frequency, he never does this more than once a month, or when he's getting really bugged out. I understand that it's more often the case that LE will begin by trying to profile the vendor than the buyer. And I also understand that sending unnecessary things thru the mail is a potential dent in OPSEC, however small.
Finally, I realize that none of this may be perfect, though from what he says it gives him a lot of peace of mind. And so far, it's given him the confidence, however imperfect, that nobody in LE and the postal system appears to be fucking with his mail.
So fire away. Tell me about all of the mistakes he's made, why he is a fool, and why he should be exploring a time share in Belize.
Not a bad idea and something I've recommended people do when they are worried their mail is being watched or otherwise delayed. The main issue is we don't really know everything we are looking for. What constitutes a real problem vs say a random delay or mistake? In other words it probably has a tendency to produce more false positives (a positive meaning mail is being watched)