topic Re: Stop abbreviating 2020! in Community Chat

Stop abbreviating 2020!

sidsmom — Fri, 03 Jan 2020 04:14:51 GMT

I ran this by an old banker friend who is a Small Business Lender.

He said...a lot of those scam alerts are kinda silly but this one?

Should be considered.

Re: Stop abbreviating 2020!

sidsmom — Fri, 03 Jan 2020 04:17:04 GMT

USA Today

Sarah Brookbank and Joel Shannon, USA TODAY NETWORK

The new year is giving scammers an easy way to forge documents, but you can protect yourself with an easy New Year's resolution: Stop abbreviating the year.

Why? This year's abbreviation is easily changeable and could be used against you. The concern is that scammers could easily manipulate a document dated "1/1/20" into "1/1/2000" or even "1/1/2021."

Writing out the full date "could possibly protect you and prevent legal issues on paperwork," according to Hamilton County, Ohio, Auditor Dusty Rhodes.

While it's early in the year for examples of this kind of fraud to emerge, the threat is real according to Ira Rheingold, the executive director of the National Association of Consumer Advocates.

In a message emailed to USA TODAY Thursday, Rheingold said scammers could use the method to establish an unpaid debt or to attempt to cash an old check.

"Say you agreed to make payments beginning on 1/15/20. The bad guy could theoretically establish that you began owing your obligation on 1/15/2019, and try to collect additional $$$," Rheingold wrote.

In the future, post-dating could be a problem too. For example, a check dated "1/1/20" could become "1/1/2021" next year, possibly making the uncashed check active again, Rheingold wrote. A similar method could be used for debts that are past the statute of limits.

The solution is easy: There's no harm in writing the full date. Writing the month out can also help.

Write this: January 15, 2020. Not this: 1/15/20.

Police have echoed the advice as well.

Re: Stop abbreviating 2020!

proudlyfromNJ — Fri, 03 Jan 2020 04:17:21 GMT

Someone on my towns FB posted this earlier today.

Re: Stop abbreviating 2020!

jellyBEAN — Fri, 03 Jan 2020 04:22:10 GMT

Good point.

Re: Stop abbreviating 2020!

SandySparkles — Fri, 03 Jan 2020 04:38:19 GMT

This is something I hadn't given much thought to, but is an excellent bit of advice. Thank you so much for posting this very informative thread.

~~~All we need is LOVE💖

Re: Stop abbreviating 2020!

insomniac2 — Fri, 03 Jan 2020 04:54:09 GMT

Thank you for this warning!

Re: Stop abbreviating 2020!

beach-mom — Fri, 03 Jan 2020 06:14:19 GMT

@sidsmom - Thank you SO MUCH for posting this! I always write my dates the European way, and I have since I was young. I would write today's date as 3 Jan 20. I will be really aware of writing the whole year out, and I will tell the rest of my family!

Re: Stop abbreviating 2020!

Lindsays Grandma — Fri, 03 Jan 2020 08:29:07 GMT

@sidsmom ...What an amazing service you did by posting that warning. I just hope a whole lot more people read it and abide by it.

Re: Stop abbreviating 2020!

Diva on The Q — Fri, 03 Jan 2020 11:24:03 GMT

Good point!

Re: Stop abbreviating 2020!

millieshops — Fri, 03 Jan 2020 11:47:34 GMT

Also on local news here this morning.

Even i can see lots of ways this could be a problem. —- now that someone else pointed it out!

Re: Stop abbreviating 2020!

Yahooey — Fri, 03 Jan 2020 12:57:18 GMT

Thanks for pointing it out although I don't know if I'm going to remember

although last year 2019 - I always but 19 which could be 1999 etc

Re: Stop abbreviating 2020!

Zukie — Fri, 03 Jan 2020 13:13:10 GMT

Thank you to you and the other posters who added additional information to the original post. It is something a lot of people don't even think about. I just shared your warning with friends and family.

Thanks again.

Re: Stop abbreviating 2020!

chrystaltree — Fri, 03 Jan 2020 14:09:31 GMT

Well if the old banker friend agrees, there must be something to it....LOL Most of us didn't need an old banker friend to have that "wow" moment. It's been all over the news and social media for days now it makes sense for legal documents but also to protect ourselves with checks. It's not that thieves haven't always altered documents, there's nothing new about that but this "20" thing makes it easy and tempting.

Re: Stop abbreviating 2020!

Anonymous — Fri, 03 Jan 2020 16:25:40 GMT

This post has been removed by QVC because it is argumentative

Re: Stop abbreviating 2020!

PhilaLady1 — Fri, 03 Jan 2020 18:58:38 GMT

And may I please add to the conversation.....

regardless of the year, also for the day and month, use a zero as a space filler, for example, instead of 2/1/2020, write 02/01/2020.

2/1/2020 can be altered to 12/1/2020 when you mean February not December

2/1/2020 can be altered to 2/11/2020 or 2/12/2020, and other combinations of 1's and 2's.

I worked at a bank through the 80's and I remember this advice.

Re: Stop abbreviating 2020!

MamaWick — Fri, 03 Jan 2020 18:37:40 GMT

So there can never ever be any doubt, one should always use xx/xx/xxxx, not x/x/xxxx, whether it's a legal document or not.

Re: Stop abbreviating 2020!

MamaWick — Fri, 03 Jan 2020 18:42:39 GMT

@PhilaLady1, I was in a hurry to get my post on and hadn't read yours first. Sorry for the repeat. I had learned about doing xx/xx/xxxx in preparation for Y2K and have done this ever since.

Welcome to the roaring 20s friends.

Re: Stop abbreviating 2020!

lovesrecess — Tue, 07 Jan 2020 02:43:45 GMT

I saw this on FB a few days ago....makes sense for documents, etc. but I think it’s fine for other things to abbreviate.