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Comment by cglouch | Hacker News Reader

Yep, for important written communications (e.g. CRAs, the IRS, debt collectors, etc.) I always use certified mail and request a return receipt. For any clueless millennials such as myself who are unfamiliar with the post office, this is a good video that shows exactly how to fill out the forms:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YLQLWdV1MZE

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There are court documents I've read that say, to this effect, that in absence of any returned mail, it is assumed that it was delivered as intended.

That's from the prosecution.

Yep ( http://federalevidence.com/node/784 ) ; mail properly addressed is assumed to be delivered. For related reasons, any mail sent to a business is assumed to have been read. This is a rebuttable presumption.

Even knowing this, many lawyers (and other savvy people) send certified mail with a return receipt. It strengthens your case in the event that the other party tries to disavow receipt of the mail, and it says (rather loudly) that there is a folder on your desk labeled Evidence and that every additional action the other party takes will join that folder.

Thanks for the video. Curious why they say never to sign the letter.

You don't sign the letter because signatures have a way of magically[0] teleporting themselves onto documents that you've never seen.

0 - Using such fancy Merlin's wands of "Photoshop" or "scanning and then MS Paint copy/paste" or just "photocopy, cut with scissors, paste with tape, photocopy again."

I have always wanted a stamp that physically cuts out a complicated pattern as a signature.

That is highly illegal. The FCRA and related laws are enforced by the FTC, CFPB, and debtors' lawyers. However, forgery is a felony in all 50 states. If they forge your signature and mail it to you from another state, it becomes a federal crime. A creditor would have to be really stupid to try something like that.

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