JAX employees alert to money order scam; two customers arrested

Sales and Service Associate Lilly Kirkland at the Jacksonville General Mail Facility main office window sold a money order to a customer in the amount of $1000 last month.

The customer left the premises, but returned less than 10 minutes later.

He claimed his wife stated they did not need the money order because she had paid one of their bills and he now wanted to cash the money order.

Kirkland remembered an email that her Supervisor Customer Services Wanda McKinney had shared with all SSAs about a scam that was being run the same way that this customer tried with his money order.Kirkland called Manager Customer Services Alvin Walker to her counter.

After talking with customer, Walker called the Postal Inspection Service that resulted in the arrest of two suspects.

The scam goes like this: a customer buys a money order, goes outside, and uses a cell phone app to scan the money order into his bank account. 

The customer comes back into the Post Office with excuse that wife stated he didn’t need to purchase money order because she paid the bill (mortgage).


The customer now would have $1,000 in bank and USPS employee gives him the $1,000 cash back. 

The U.S. Postal Service and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service play leading roles in increasing public awareness of identity theft and fraudulent mailing schemes.


The organizations state that, according to the FTC, as little as 2 percent of all victims reported that the identity crimes they experienced were through the U.S. Mail.