USPS will not tell an ordinary member of the public who rents a PO Box. Under 39 CFR 265.14, the Postal Service releases boxholder information in three narrow situations: to a government agency that certifies in writing it needs the information for its official duties, to a person empowered by law to serve legal process in actual or prospective litigation, and in compliance with a subpoena or court order. Curiosity, a suspicious letter, or a debt you want traced does not qualify. There is no fourth door.
That answer surprises people, because a large number of pages still describe a route that no longer exists. Until 2000, USPS would hand out the recorded business name, address and telephone number for a box being used to do or solicit business with the public, to anyone who asked. That provision was repealed. Almost everything written about identifying a PO Box holder was written before the repeal or copied from something that was.
The rule that changed, and why most advice is out of date
On January 25, 2000 the Postal Service published a final rule titled “Release of Information” in the Federal Register at 65 FR 3857, effective February 24, 2000. Its summary states plainly:
“The recorded business name, address, and telephone number of a post office box used for doing or soliciting business with the public will no longer be provided to the general public upon request.”
The stated reason was privacy and security for the growing number of small-business owners running a business from home. The same rule stopped USPS from releasing box application information in response to an oral request from a law enforcement agency during a criminal investigation, and barred disclosure entirely, except by court order, where the customer has filed a protective order with the Postal Service.
This matters for one practical reason. If you read that “you can request boxholder information because the box is used for business,” you are reading pre-2000 guidance. A postmaster following current regulation will not release it on that basis. Anyone telling you otherwise is describing a rule that was withdrawn more than twenty five years ago at the time of writing.
What USPS actually holds
Everything USPS knows about a boxholder comes from PS Form 1093, the Application for Post Office Box or Caller Service. The applicant supplies a name, a street address, identification, and the names of others authorized to receive mail at the box. The person who signs the 1093 is the primary boxholder.
Note that PS Form 1093 is the box application. It is not the form you file to ask about someone else’s box. Pages that tell you to “submit Form 1093” to identify a sender have confused the two documents. The request USPS publishes for that purpose is a request format rather than a numbered PS form, covered in detail in the USPS boxholder information request.
Who gets boxholder information, and who does not
| Requester | What USPS does |
|---|---|
| Federal, state or local government agency | Releases on prior written certification that the information is required for the performance of its duties |
| Person empowered by law to serve legal process (process server, attorney, party representing themselves) | Releases the name and street address on a signed, certified written request stating the litigation basis |
| Anyone holding a subpoena or court order | Releases in compliance with it; information not otherwise disclosable can be released only pursuant to a court order |
| A member of the public who received mail from the box | Nothing. There is no consumer route |
| Anyone at all, where the boxholder has filed a protective court order with the postmaster | Nothing, except by order of a court |
The middle row is the one people latch onto, and it is real, but it is narrow. It is a route for serving legal papers, not a route for satisfying a question about your mail. The published request format carries a certification that the address is “needed and will be used solely for service of legal process in connection with actual or prospective litigation,” and a warning that submitting false information for any other purpose can carry criminal penalties under Title 18 U.S.C. Section 1001, up to a $10,000 fine, up to five years imprisonment, or both. That warning is on the form because people have tried.
What the person at the counter can and cannot tell you
Retail counter staff are not the decision maker here, and asking them puts them in an awkward position over something they are not permitted to do. Boxholder disclosure requests go to the Postmaster at the office where the box is held, in writing, in the published format. There is no fee. Only one request may be made per completed form.
Three things a counter visit will not produce:
- The boxholder’s name, on request, for any reason
- Confirmation that a name you already suspect is the right one, which is disclosure by another route
- A referral to a service that will tell you, because none is authorized to
One thing a post office visit genuinely can settle: whether the address on your letter is a real, currently rented box at that office, which is a delivery question rather than an identity question. Staff will not always answer that either, but it is not barred the way identity is.
This is not a way to find a person, and we will not help with that
Everything on this page is written for one situation: a company or organization mailed you first, you cannot identify it from the envelope, and you want to know who is contacting you. That is a legitimate need and the methods on this site are built for it.
None of this is a method for locating an individual who has not contacted you. If you are trying to find someone’s home address, trace a person who moved away from you, or reach someone who has chosen not to be reachable, stop here. Using postal records, lookup services or public registries to find or approach a person who does not wish to be contacted can be harassment or stalking, and in the United States that is a criminal matter in every state, not a gray area. It is also exactly the behavior the 2000 rule change and the protective-order provision exist to prevent. We do not publish workarounds, and there is no framing of a request that turns this into an allowed use.
If someone is contacting you and you want it to stop, that is a different problem with a real answer: report unwanted or threatening mail to the US Postal Inspection Service, which is the law enforcement arm of USPS.
What to do instead, when the sender is a business
The good news is that the USPS route was never the efficient one for identifying a company. The organization behind a business PO Box usually publishes the box itself, because it wants your payment or your claim form to arrive:
- Read the envelope properly first. The name line, the Dept line, the ZIP+4 and the permit imprint each encode something different, and the name line is the least reliable of them. Start with how to read a business return address.
- Search the box number as an exact phrase with a purpose word such as claims, settlement, collections or payments, rather than the box number alone.
- Check the state business registry for the state the ZIP code belongs to, once you have a candidate name.
- Check the court docket if the letter references a case number or a settlement.
- Accept an unresolved answer when that is the honest one. Some boxes never resolve, and that is covered in what to do when a PO Box cannot be identified.
The full sequence, in order, is in how to find out who owns a PO Box. If the letter is a collection notice, the identification question is secondary to your rights, which are covered in what to do about a letter about a debt you do not recognize.
Jurisdiction
Everything above is United States postal regulation. 39 CFR is the Code of Federal Regulations title covering the US Postal Service, and it governs USPS only. Royal Mail, Canada Post, Australia Post and every other national postal operator set their own disclosure rules, and several are stricter. Do not apply this page to a box outside the US.
FAQ
Can I find out who owns a PO Box from USPS?
Not as a member of the public. USPS releases boxholder information only to a government agency with written certification, to a person empowered by law to serve legal process in actual or prospective litigation, or under a subpoena or court order.
Isn’t boxholder information public if the box is used for business?
It used to be. The Postal Service repealed that provision in a final rule published at 65 FR 3857 on January 25, 2000, effective February 24, 2000. Guidance that still describes the business exception is out of date.
How much does a boxholder information request cost?
There is no fee for providing boxholder or change of address information under the published USPS request process. Cost is not the barrier; eligibility is.
Can the post office tell me if a PO Box is currently rented?
Sometimes, as a delivery question rather than an identity question. Confirming that a box exists and receives mail is different from naming who holds it, and only the second is barred by regulation.
What if I think the mail is a scam?
Identification and safety are separate questions, and you do not need a name to decide what to do with the letter. Start with what to do about a letter from an unknown sender, and report suspected mail fraud to the US Postal Inspection Service.
Sources: 39 CFR 265.14, Rules concerning specific categories of records · Postal Service final rule, “Release of Information,” 65 FR 3857 (January 25, 2000) · USPS Change of Address or Boxholder Request Format · US Postal Inspection Service
Last verified at the time of writing. Regulation and USPS policy are reviewed here every 6 months. How we source identifications is set out in our Editorial Policy, and the limits of this information are in our Disclaimer. Nothing here is legal advice.
