Community Chat

[On It]

I have seen two postings this morning cautioning individuals about mailing checks. There has been a sharp uptick in the number of checks being stolen from the USPS. The last story was from the CBS local affiliate.

Last week I saw a photo of a check for something like $28 that had been stolen and altered to $4000. It certainly gives pause concerning this heightened risk.

[Eileen in Virginia]

This happened to us a few years ago. Someone stole our half-year real estate tax payment and altered the check to change the payee and almost triple the amount. DH had mailed it in an outdoor, drive-up mailbox in the Post Office driveway. Luckily, the bank caught it. We now have checks that are treated to show attempts to alter a check. Although we pay most of our bills online, we take any hard copy payments to the mailbox INSIDE the Post Offiice. 

[depglass]

It is downright pathetic that we can't trust postal employees to guard outside boxes.  Of course, if this was done by an employee, they could have snagged the envelope inside the building also.  Just make sure your envelope doesn't get stuck at the opening, especially at Christmas when there might be cards filling the box.

[msgb]

One always has to be extra careful.

The post offices and the post boxes outside the post office facilities seem to be being broken into a lot lately. No matter where one lives it is the case.

If ever possible I try and pay the bill in person. 

If you are writing a check one of the things that you should do is use a pen that is a gel pen. They are harder to wash. Yes the checks are washed and then a new amount is put in.

[ScrapHappy]

Around here, mail is being stolen from people's mailboxes.  Mostly those mailboxes that are all together in a community.  Especially apartments.  We still write checcks to pay bills.  Considered paying but there's potential problems with that too.  We always take our bills inside the post office to mail.

[deeva]

Unfortunately, this has been happening for at least five years. That's why I seldom write or mail checks.

But if I do, I mail it from inside the post office.

[beckyb1012]

We had a company check sent from Texas to New York for $32.00 and it was altered to $25,000.  The bank was suspicious since they changed the name on the Payee to Southern Comfort Whiskey.  The bank called me and we got our money back but the thieves of course were never caught.  Apparently the way they do it is "chemical wash" the payee name and the amounts but keep the rest of the check for payment.

Mail as been being stolen since mail and checks began.  I pay all bills with check personal and business.

[Snoopp]

I rarely mail from my personal mailbox.  I usually go directly to the post office.  Our area changed the 24 hour blue boxes so that it is more difficult to get mail out of them.  

[SilleeMee]

Around here in my neighborhood there are kids who think it's funny to take mail out of peoples' mailboxes and let it scatter in the wind. 

[Bhvbum]

---

@On It wrote:

I have seen two postings this morning cautioning individuals about mailing checks. There has been a sharp uptick in the number of checks being stolen from the USPS. The last story was from the CBS local affiliate.

Last week I saw a photo of a check for something like $28 that had been stolen and altered to $4000. It certainly gives pause concerning this heightened risk.

======================================================

So what is the solution, we're not going to stop mailing checks if need be.  And we should be checking our monthly statements anyway.  The bank customer has a year to notify the bank of an altered check and their account will be restored.  

The very same thing can happen to a credit card, someone can charge something fraudulently. We should be checking those statements every month too.  The same thing could happen if your account gets hacked. But we're going to continue to write checks and use our credit/debit cards. Who has time to go to a business, check in hand?