Do you believe that people that use a Post Office Box number are hiding from something or somebody?

No, the people that I know that have post office boxes seem to move a lot, or be paranoid that someone will steal their mail.

Could be they don’t have a mailbox at home…

Nope. Like @JustJessica mentioned, I kept a PO Box near my work when I was moving a lot. I kept it for 4 years. Made more sense than going through the headache of changing your address on everything.

As @coffeenut said, there’s quite a few people in my area that don’t have an approved location for a mailbox, and therefore need to have a box.

No, I don’t. In some rural areas, they do not have mail delivery, so the residents must get a PO box. (And I believe that they are free if the post office does not go to your residence.) I have a PO box because the plows kept knocking down our mailbox when they came by. We got tired of putting it back up every other day.

For the record, banks (and I work for one) will ask for your physical address along with your post office box address. Patriot Act says we must know where you live. (Or where you say you live. And yes, that’s a very simplified explanation.)

Lots of small towns do not have house-to-house mail delivery so everyone in town has a P.O. Box.

Conspiracy theorist much? There’s nothing wrong with having one place to get your mail. Whether you move a lot, whether its rural, or for whatever other reason. The reason you can’t find out who uses what box is because, gasp, its none of your business! Why would you want to be nosy and know who’s getting their mail at what box? This makes as little sense as your idea that people with PO Boxes are bad people with something to hide.

There are multitudes of reasons, from having something to hide from nosy people who live with you (Why are you getting mail from ____? What’s in it? Why are you getting pissed off when I ask about your mail? Well, it came to the family box, didn’t it? Don’t I have every right to look at your mail? No? You’re being ridiculous!) to having mail stolen (not good for credit card bills) to not being able to get mail anywhere else to unreliable postal delivery people who should have been forcibly retired years back but still “deliver” the mail. If you’re not getting your mail for a variety of reasons, its far better to use a PO Box than just not get things that are important.

Nope. If you are hiding from someone or something you usually dont get mail at all.

My rule of thumb is if a business has a P.O.Box number, then they are either a scam or part of a childrens television show. The majority of cases that I have seen a P.O.Box it has been one of those two.

There are plenty of PO Boxes used by billing agencies, credit card companies + other large-scale corporations.

@poisonedantidote Or they’re in a rural area, or they get more mail than their box and whatever location can hold, or they… No.

Absolutely.

People with post office boxes are bad people…

…and they should feel bad.

@Fiddle_Playing_Creole_Bastard: Oh they do. A recent survey in the WSJ suggests that almost 65% of PO Box-owning folks feel discontent or malcontent up to 85% of the time. This is largely due to feelings of neglect due to absence of any noticeable postal carrier in close proximity.

No. Maybe they are just cautious, or travel a lot, or run a business out of their home and don’t want to give their home address to clents and customers.

Sometimes they are running a racket, but I think that is the minority.

I was a member of the SLA, so I have to hide from the man. My office building covers most of a block and most people don’t know the name of the street on my side of the building. There’s something like over 100 different businesses in here. What address would you use?

I currently have a PMB because my roommate (who has the only key to the mailbox) doesn’t check the mail very often…. thats my only reason.

The two places I lived before here (3 years time frame all together) I had mail coming to my direct address.

So no I don’t think people who have PMB’s are hiding… some could be, but as you can see from my case not everyone

I must admit that some of the answers are reasons that i have never thought of. like, rural areas not having mailboxes.

My reason for asking this question, pertains to catching wanted criminals. many times, i had warrants to serve on people. looking at their previous addresses on their criminal record, most had PO Box numbers and not a solid street address.

I only know of one person who set up a PO box… and it wasn’t for the good.

My old best friend (called x), his brother set up a PO box in x’s name.. Which x didn’t mind, untill he was investigated by MI5 for being an eco-terrorist….!! WTF!

yeah, his little bro was up to no good, but used his brothers name. When x started to be investigated by MI5, his little bro fled to Canada, and then into the states over the border.
Left his big brother to deal with a load of shit, and had a nightmare for years trying to convince the authorities that it wasn’t him…

That was back in the 90’s tho..

@963chris, I lol’d heartily.

@john65pennington Ever think that people who are wanted criminals are the same people who move around a lot? Possibly because if they’re wanted criminals they can’t keep a job and a housing situation? Anyway, if they weren’t wanted, they’d be caught. Because you’d know where to find them. Odds are they’re not sitting at their house smoking weed all the time and waiting for you to show up to catch them, they’re somewhere that wouldn’t be down as their address anyway. Like sitting at their mother’s house smoking weed all the time and waiting for you to show up to catch them.

We got a P O box because we were in temporary quarters for a few months before buying our house and didn’t want to have to change the address. We use it all the time because there is no danger of anyone stealing our mail.

@YARNLADY – that has been an added benefit of having the box. I feel like the mail is in a fairly safe, locked up place until I can get to it.