# Mail drop

A mail drop is an address that exists to receive post for people and companies who are not there, such as a mail-forwarding branch or a formation agent.

Date: 2026-09-10

A mail drop is an address that exists to receive post for people and companies who are not there: a mail-forwarding branch, a virtual-office suite, a company formation agent's registered-office service.

## What Spaw answers

`is_mail_drop` is the flag, `mail_drop_provider` names the operator where one is known, and `mail_drop_source` says which of two things decided it. `operator_list` means the address appears on a mail-forwarding operator's own published branch list. `company_cluster` means more companies name the address in an open company register than the published threshold — the signal that catches a formation agent's office with thousands of companies registered to it.

The risk score carries +50, and `companies_registered` carries the count itself so you can see the evidence rather than take the flag on trust.

## What it is a fact about

An address. Not a person and not a company. Plenty of legitimate businesses use a formation agent's address, and one registered there has done nothing wrong; a cluster is a property of a building. `company_cluster` in particular is a heuristic with a threshold, and the number that produced it is published beside the flag for exactly that reason.

Reference: https://spaw.co/glossary/mail-drop