18 U.S.C. § 1725: Fines for Unstamped Flyers in Mailboxes

Under federal law, putting flyers in mailboxes is illegal when the flyers carry no postage. The statute is 18 U.S.C. § 1725, and it treats every mailbox on a delivery route as federal property the moment a carrier starts using it. Fines run up to $5,000 per item for a person and $10,000 per item for a business, and each flyer counts as its own offense.¹²

Why Your Mailbox Is Federal Property

You buy the box, you install it, you paint it. None of that matters. Every letterbox or receptacle used for receiving or delivering mail on a city route, rural route, highway contract route, or any other mail route is an “authorized depository” under federal law. Curbside boxes, wall-mounted boxes next to a front door, and locked cluster units in apartment complexes are all covered.³

The rule reaches past the interior of the box. Postal regulations bar using any part of a mail receptacle to deliver unstamped material, which includes items placed on top of the box, taped to its side, hung from the flag, or leaning against the post.⁴ A menu rubber-banded to the post violates § 1725 the same as one slid inside.

What the Statute Counts as a Flyer

Section 1725 uses the phrase “mailable matter” and lists statements of accounts, circulars, and sale bills as examples. The catch-all “or other like matter” sweeps in almost any physical item that could travel through the mail: restaurant menus, political literature, church bulletins, garage-sale notices, real estate cards, and community event flyers.¹

The content doesn’t matter. Free doesn’t matter. Local doesn’t matter. What matters is the delivery method. If a flyer goes into or onto a mailbox without postage, it’s covered.

Two mental-state requirements narrow the reach. The deposit has to be “knowing and willful,” and the person has to act “with intent to avoid payment of lawful postage.” A neighbor slipping in an unstamped birthday card is unlikely to meet that standard. A company sending workers to drop hundreds of flyers door to door, skipping bulk-mail fees, almost certainly does.¹

How the Fines Add Up

The statute prescribes only a fine. The maximum amounts come from the general federal fines statute:

Individuals face up to $5,000 per offense.²
Organizations face up to $10,000 per offense.²

The statute says “for each such offense,” so every flyer is a separate violation.¹ A landscaping crew that hits 200 mailboxes in one afternoon is looking at theoretical exposure of $1 million as an individual distributor, or $2 million as a business. Real-world enforcement rarely runs to those numbers, but the arithmetic itself is a reason to stop.

What Happens When a Carrier Finds Them

Fines aren’t the first step. When a carrier spots unstamped material in mailboxes, the items go back to the local delivery unit and postage is calculated. If only some boxes on a route got flyers, all the pieces are pulled and rated. If identical flyers went to every address, the Postal Service samples the batch to work out the rate.⁵

Once the distributor is identified, the local postmaster contacts them with the piece count and the postage due. Pay within five days and the Postal Service delivers the flyers, or the distributor can redeliver them personally. Refuse or disappear, and the items go back to the publisher or manufacturer with a postage-due notice. Anything unclaimed becomes dead mail.⁵

Where You Can Legally Leave a Flyer

Federal law leaves several routes open for distributing printed material without buying postage:

Mail slots cut into a front door are not regulated by the Postal Service, so a flyer pushed through a door slot is fine.⁶
Doorknobs, porches, and doorsteps involve no mail receptacle at all, so § 1725 doesn’t reach them.
A hook or ring attached to the post that supports the mailbox — not the mailbox itself — is exempt from the postage requirement.
Nonlockable bins or troughs near apartment cluster mailboxes can receive unstamped material.⁷

The rule of thumb is short: don’t touch the mailbox, and don’t touch anything attached to it. Once your flyer contacts the receptacle, the postage requirement kicks in.

Reporting Someone Who Stuffs Mailboxes

If unstamped commercial material keeps showing up in your box, the United States Postal Inspection Service handles reports of mail-related offenses. File online through the USPIS reporting portal or call 1-877-876-2455.⁸ Routine complaints — a late package, a damaged envelope — go through the regular USPS help channels, not the Inspection Service. Most § 1725 violations are actually caught by carriers on their routes, which triggers the postage-due process rather than a homeowner complaint, but reports help when the same distributor keeps working the same neighborhood.

1
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 U.S.C. 1725 – Postage Unpaid on Deposited Mail Matter
2
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 U.S.C. 3571 – Sentence of Fine
3
United States Postal Service. Domestic Mail Manual – 508 Recipient Services
4
United States Postal Service. DMM 508 Recipient Services
5
Postal Explorer. 604 Postage Payment Methods and Refunds
6
United States Postal Service. Requirements for City Delivery Mail Receptacles
7
USPS.com. Restrictions for Attaching Flyers, Posters, Etc. to a Mailbox
8
United States Postal Inspection Service. Report