LOUISVILLE, Ky. --
The Louisville post office is ending a tradition of sharing needy "Dear Santa" letters with the public because of concerns about potential scams.

In the past, citizen-volunteers would send gifts to some of those letter-writers.

The tradition began around 1940, when Louisville Postal Service workers noticed that many "Dear Santa" letters were coming from the needy and they began to help, eventually allowing non-employees to participate.

While volunteers from the post office will continue to reply to the letters from children and help as many needy families as they can, non-employees can no longer participate.

The post office says it isn't set up to confirm if the letter writers are truly needy, or whether they're getting help from other agencies, said Don Beierle, the post office's manager of customer relations.

"There's no way for us to know these are valid or legit," he said. "We have instances where (volunteers have) gone in the family's house and (the family is) sitting there watching their high-definition TV, and they don't need help," he said.

Also, there's a potential for someone with criminal intent - even a child predator - to pick up a letter, which often includes names and addresses, Beierle said. Although he said he doesn't know of any instances of that happening, he said he has no way of knowing.

"The times have changed so much we just can't do business as usual any more."

So far this year, 1,500 letters addressed to Santa have arrived at the post office on Gardiner Lane. Most are from children, and are getting the standard reply letter.

The majority of the 105 that have been classified so far as "needy" are written by adults, according to post office officials, who say they will try to help as many as they can. Last year, postal employees had 136 letters deemed "needy" - they helped 16 of those families, while the public helped another 24.

Sandra Mattingly said she understands the post office concerns but is saddened that the program has to change. "I just hate that so many good people end up suffering for what a few bad ones will do," she said.

She said she and her husband, Alan, bought goods for an elderly woman on a fixed income last year.

Beierle said that in the past, participants who came to the Gardiner Lane post office to pick up a letter or two would sign a confidentiality agreement and provide a copy of their photo ID. But officials weren't sure that was sufficient, or that additional paperwork would be enough to ensure safety.