System and method of identifying and sorting international mail pieces based on applied-postage adequacy in order to enhance postal service revenue protection

A method of processing, through a postal system, a mail piece exhibiting at least a destination address field, information indicative of the identity of the sender and an indication as to a level of delivery service requested, the method comprising the steps of:

• maintaining, in computer memory, postal-customer account data uniquely associating the identity of at least one postal customer with an account authorized to have automatically assessed to it postal charges associated with the processing of mail pieces for which postage-paid indicia indicative of the payment of insufficient postage are exhibited thereon, including mail pieces exhibiting postage-paid indicia purchased without any pre-association in computer memory, prior to deposit of the mail piece into the postal system, between the authorized account and the postage-paid indicia exhibited on such mail pieces;
• depositing into the postal system a mail piece exhibiting (i) a destination address field, (ii) information indicative of a sender whose identity is associated in the postal customer account data with an account authorized to have automatically assessed to it postal charges associated with the processing of mail pieces, (iii) an indication as to a level of delivery service requested and (iv) postage-paid indicia indicative of the payment of postage insufficient to process the mail piece in accordance with the level of delivery service requested and for which there existed in computer memory, at least prior to deposit of the mail piece into the postal system, no data associating the postage-paid indicia with an account to which postal charges can be automatically assessed;
• capturing at least one image from a surface of the deposited mail piece and storing the at least one image in computer memory, the at least one image including at least (i) a destination address field image corresponding to the destination address field on the deposited mail piece, (ii) data indicative of the identity of the sender of the deposited mail piece, (iii) an indication as to a level of delivery service requested, and (iv) an image including data indicative of the postage-paid indicia;
• maintaining mail-services postage data relating required postage rates to data indicative of a set of mail-piece characteristics;
• resolving the at least one captured image associated with the deposited mail piece in order to produce a resolved data set associated with the deposited mail piece and indicative of (i) the destination indicated in the destination address field, (ii) the level of delivery service requested, and (iii) the amount of postage paid;
• consulting the mail-services postage data and comparing the resolved data set to the mail-services postage data;
• rendering a determination, based on the comparison between the resolved data set associated with the deposited mail piece and the mail-services postage data, as to the deficiency in postage required to further process the mail piece in accordance with the level of delivery service requested;
• resolving a portion of a captured image including data indicative of the identity of the sender of the deposited mail piece, associating the resolved data indicative of the identity of the sender with the resolved data set associated with the deposited mail piece, and comparing the resolved data set associated with the deposited mail piece to the postal-customer-account data in order to identify, through cross-referencing, the account with which the identity of the sender is associated;
• automatically assessing to the account associated with the indicated sender a postal charge representative of at least the amount of the determined deficiency in postage required for the level of delivery service requested;
• and
• sorting the deposited mail piece for delivery in accordance with the level of delivery service requested.