A mailbox system that notifies the mail recipient, via a communication network, of the presence of physical mail in his or her mailbox. A button is placed in each mail slot that causes an electronic notification message to be sent to the mail recipient, thus notifying the mail recipient of the presence of physical mail in his or her mail slot and also causes an LED to be illuminated. When the physical mail is retrieved from the mail slot, the button is pressed again to deactivate the LED. Individual pieces of physical mail can be tagged with a RFID tag. A sensor in the mail slot reads the RFID tag and causes an electronic notification to be sent to the mail recipient.