Sadly not planning to travel far, but good info.

Your name, address & email. Always check!

You might want to contact the local police and explain what happened to you and ask them to be extra vigilant in watching your house when you are gone. Also - let the neighbors know to keep and eye on your house as well.

Smart thinking.

They'll monitor the house while we're gone.
Plus good neighbors and Neighborhood Watch, which I highly recommend.

Following the instructions that came in the mail, I clicked on the first link "Renew Colorado License", filled out the form and was asked to pay $19.99...scams everywhere.

Please pay attention to the actual website!!

just for a change of address.

Off to my CU and file a fraud report and got my money back.

Shit like this needs to be regulated out of existence..... yet another reason we need Democrats to win back control of our government.

You need to scrutinize the URL to make sure it is the government PO and not another site posing as USPS.

The only thing the PO charges is $1 for a change of address and forwarding for a stretch of time.

The PO isn't a scam, but the sites posing as the PO are.

when we have a criminal in charge.

USPS.Com is the site to goto for all services from holding mail, inform delivery setup, passports, calculate postage for packages, and etc. Only charges the website will deduct for your credit or debit card is if you use the online change of address service, which is a $1. Reason is to ensure you are the person requesting the C.O.A. through your card, to prevent fraud.

As for all other websites, when paying online, verify that the website is real and not a knockoff of a site you are truly are seeking. If unsure, call the institution you seek to verify that the website is theirs. Do not use the phone number the unsure website is providing to you. As for USPS, 1 800 ASK USPS is the phone number.

...you are telling the scammers when you will be out of town.

and ended up giving scammers access to my computer - but thankfully managed to abort it - I no longer use google when I can.

Earlier I paid my property tax online. I started googling for the county property tax site but then realized that I had the address on the statement and entered it directly into the URL window.