A system that determines if mail contains life-harming materials before the mail enters the interior of a receptacle, i.e., mail box. This invention accomplishes the foregoing by scanning mail in a control chamber of a receptacle that is addressed to a recipient which contains material that may or may not be life-harming; capturing an image of the face of the mail, which includes the name and physical address of the recipient and the postal indicia; processing the image on the face of the mail to identify the mailer and the mail to access the possibility of the presence of life-harming material in the mail. If certain information in the image on the face of the mail is known, the mail will be allowed to enter an inner chamber of the receptacle.