1. A method of verifying an intended addressee on a mailpiece matches a valid addressee in a mail processing apparatus using an OCR system, said method comprising the steps of: identifying character recognition errors in an OCR character string of the intended addressee: comparing the characters of the OCR character string to the characters of an expected character string of the intended addressee; assigning an accuracy value for a minimum number of required character matches between the characters of the OCR character string and the characters of the expected character string of the intended addressee; generating a confidence level that for a given accuracy value the intended addressee is that of the valid addressee; declaring a match exists between the intended addressee and the valid addressee when the confidence level is met or exceeded, and declaring an error exists between the intended addressee and the valid addressee when the confidence level is not met.