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Respected Contributor
Posts: 2,201
Registered: ‎10-07-2013

Re: Be Careful Mailing Checks

If a workman is in my house and needs a check, I write one, put it in his hand, and ask for a receipt.  Otherwise I do all other payments through my bank's on-line processing company.  They are responsible for making sure that the payment gets where it's supposed to go by the date I specify.

Respected Contributor
Posts: 4,254
Registered: ‎06-21-2011

Re: Be Careful Mailing Checks


@Isobel Archer wrote:

We sent a birthday card containing a check  - deposited in a mail box outside the post office - on Sun Apr 3.  On Monday Apr 4, the check was altered (different payee and with a significant increase in amount) and cashed.

 

We reported this to the bank, the Postal Investigative Service and to the local police.

 

I read an article where theft from mail boxes is increasing at an alarming rate.  Apparently, it is safer to mail inside the post office.


In our area they are replacing mail boxes, old ones that is with new ones that have only a TINY slit for you to put first class mail in.  NO boxes no matter how small will fit.  All over the area these are being placed.  VERY good post because yeah, people are stealing mail out of boxes.  One box that I saw, RIGHT outside the post office building was so jambed with mail that you could just pluck it right out (old type of mail box).  I was gonna mail bills there and you can do it from your car so I hand my husband the bills, he was gonna put them in and I SCREAMED.....NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!  WHEW!!!  I mailed them in the new box some where else.  Excellent post.  So sorry this happened to you.  I know it's upsetting.

Honored Contributor
Posts: 9,600
Registered: ‎03-21-2010

Re: Be Careful Mailing Checks

[ Edited ]

Wish my husband would stop doing that.  He still pays by check on somethings.  The other day, he dropped our Tax return in the post office box.  At least he does that.  He never drops any mail on a box on the street.  But he does drive up to the post office and drops off his mail there.  I never do.  I pay everything online and checks to to my son are given directly to him.

 

We can pay our water bill online.  My husband pays it via check.  One time he decided to do it online and he did.  But than we received a notice from the water that he did NOT pay it!  We had to fight with them to finally saying we did pay.  Since then it's back to paying by check!

 

The other thing I NEVER do is put boxes in post office boxes.  I always get in line to hand over boxes at the post office.

Honored Contributor
Posts: 12,889
Registered: ‎03-09-2010

Re: Be Careful Mailing Checks

[ Edited ]

@Sage04 wrote:

Didn't believe that people still paid by check. I once had a storage unit that charged $4.50 to pay by Card. I went to my Bank and bought 6 checks and used them for the Storage. I dropped a check each month through the slot in their office. Left them after that.

 

All my bills are deducted automatically every month. Couldn't be easier.

 

Some people don't trust Zelle but I do. Never had a problem. My entire family is happy with Zelle and that's the way we transfer money to each other.

 

Yes we have Paypal, Cashapp and everything else but our go to is Zelle.



@Sage04 - you don't believe that people still pay by check?  Well, I do, so you can believe it.  And I can't believe I am the only person in the entire country who still has checks and uses them.  It's not some big superior thing to NOT pay by check. It's a choice.

 

And I choose not to use Zelle.  I have read not so good things about Zelle, too risky, but, of course, if you feel comfortable with it, that's your choice.  


Why is it, when I have a 50/50 guess at something, I'm always 100% wrong?
Respected Contributor
Posts: 4,986
Registered: ‎10-04-2015

Re: Be Careful Mailing Checks

[ Edited ]

Many states are reporting a rise in mail theft.

Crooks stealing checks from Connecticut mail boxes

have drained bank accounts

 

Hartford Courant

March 21. 2022

 

 

Thieves using line attached to rodent glue traps have snagged checks from U.S. mail collection boxes in several Connecticut towns, a lucrative catch used to drain victims’ bank accounts.

 

Avon police posted signs at drop boxes earlier this month warning people to avoid mailing cash and checks and to mail items inside the post office rather than using outdoor boxes.

 

Mailbox fishing” has been reported throughout the nation. Crews using rodent traps and other sticky devices attached to lines haul in envelopes, then pluck the checks and discard the rest. Using ink-removing chemicals, they “wash” the checks, altering names and amounts, authorities say.

 

 

West Hartford Capt. Eric Rocheleau said police have received several complaints from residents who reported stolen and altered checks. Detectives were investigating one case in which thieves used custom-made tools to remove mail from a postal drop box, Rocheleau said.

 

A longtime Farmington Valley resident who wished to remain anonymous said Monday that his elderly parents’ bank account was nearly wiped out recently after thieves stole two checks from a drive-up collection box off Route 44 in Avon. The crooks altered the amount on one check from $110 to $8,000 and cashed it, the man said.

 

The criminals then Photoshopped the checks and created blank checks with the same account number and victim’s name — “so it essentially looked exactly like a blank check that you would have in your checkbook,” the man said.

 

“Then they started writing checks, and they forged my signature that was based on the signature of the two checks that they stole,” he said.

The man said he learned Monday that the money was insured and will be replaced.

 

The check-stealing crews drive along major thoroughfares like Route 44 and do their work quickly. On March 15, police in Scarsdale, New York, found stolen mail and sticky rat traps inside a crashed and abandoned car, according to the Scarsdale Inquirer newspaper.

 

 

In Philadelphia, check thieves have used keys to open collection boxes and haul away the entire contents, the Philadelphia Inquirer newspaper reported. Criminals steal the keys from mail carriers or pay the carriers thousands of dollars for the so-called “arrow keys.”

 

How cybercriminals turn paper checks stolen from mailboxes into bitcoin

 

A 2020 report by the U.S. Postal Service Inspector General found lax oversight of the keys. “The Postal Service’s management controls over arrow keys were ineffective,” the report said. “Specifically, the number of arrow keys in circulation is unknown, and local units did not adequately report lost, stolen, or broken keys or maintain key inventories.

 

Further, the Postal Service did not restrict the number of replacement arrow keys that could be ordered. Ineffective controls over arrow keys increases the risk that these items will be lost or stolen and not detected.”

Respected Contributor
Posts: 4,373
Registered: ‎04-04-2015

Re: Be Careful Mailing Checks

It seems to me that once this started happening, the Postal Service should have either taken steps to absolutely secure mail boxes - or eliminate them altogether.

 

I am tired of this attitude that people should somehow "know" that mailboxes are unsafe.

Respected Contributor
Posts: 4,443
Registered: ‎03-10-2010

Re: Be Careful Mailing Checks

I haven't put a check in the mailbox for years, I do all my bill paying online and any few checks I do have I take to the post office but take them inside and put them in the lobby slot, that's the best I can do.  If I send gift cards to anyone, I do the same thing, nothing goes in my mailbox to go out.  

Honored Contributor
Posts: 39,554
Registered: ‎08-23-2010

Re: Be Careful Mailing Checks


@Isobel Archer wrote:

We sent a birthday card containing a check  - deposited in a mail box outside the post office - on Sun Apr 3.  On Monday Apr 4, the check was altered (different payee and with a significant increase in amount) and cashed.

 

We reported this to the bank, the Postal Investigative Service and to the local police.

 

I read an article where theft from mail boxes is increasing at an alarming rate.  Apparently, it is safer to mail inside the post office.


@Isobel Archer 

 

I haven't read every single post, so sorry if this has already been mentioned .... but if someone steals and alters a check, they can't just deposit it without giving their identity away ....  right?  

 

So, the thieves are cashing checks somewhere that doesn't care about identification?  I am missing how someone can anonymously cash an altered check ... anywhere.

Honored Contributor
Posts: 39,554
Registered: ‎08-23-2010

Re: Be Careful Mailing Checks

 

When I started reading this thread, I was wondering who regularly writes checks anymore?   Apparently a lot of people still do.  The order of checks I obtained last year will probably last me the rest of my life! Woman LOL

 

Funny, it's almost impossible to be in a populated area where a security camera isn't nearby ... I can't believe people would take the chance to see themselves on tape ... in the courthouse!  

Honored Contributor
Posts: 13,018
Registered: ‎03-09-2010

Re: Be Careful Mailing Checks

After reading this thread, I wonder if when paying my credit card bill is it safer to pay directly to the card's site or through a bank's bill pay function.