‘Real organized criminal gangs’ are after the checks you mail — protect yourself and your money now

Forward is now working with the Houston Police Department and Chase Bank to recover the stolen money. She is likely the victim of a practice called check washing, experts say, in which criminals steal a check and then use chemicals including bleach and nail polish remover to erase all check information and replace it with their own.

Her case is just one among a wave of mail thefts happening across the country.

Gangs stealing checks ‘en masse’

Scott Anchin, senior vice president, strategic initiatives and policy for the Independent Community Bankers of America, told USA TODAY that, unlike in the past when check fraudsters operated independently, “now, you have real organized criminal gangs who engage in check fraud.” These gangs “steal checks en masse,” he added.

Three men from New York, two from the Bronx and one from Queens were arrested on allegations of stealing thousands of checks worth close to $5 million from blue mailboxes across Long Island, FOX 5 News reported .

And in November of last year in Oklahoma, eight people pleaded guilty in federal court to a scheme that’s said to have drained more than $100,000 from local bank accounts using stolen USPS master keys, per a KOCO 5 News report.

Many consumer advocates now believe that online payments — via electronic check, debit or credit card — are the safest bet for consumers as check fraud rises.

Creative approaches

Check thieves are creative in their approach to stealing mail in their hunt for checks, including using fishing devices fitted with mouse glue traps to pull out every envelope the adhesive catches.

“Usually they use a belt and then adhesive trap or a mouse,” Raymond Tierney, Suffolk County District Attorney, told FOX 5 New York. “Once the adhesive gets down to where the mail is, all the mail sticks, they bring it up,” he added.

Jared Kay, a small business owner in the same neighborhood, said his insurance payment was intercepted. “When I dropped it off the USPS blue box, you figure that’s the most secure way of sending a check in the mail,” Kay told FOX 5. He added that he believes an insider was involved in the theft of his check: “Someone inside was taking these letters, opening them up, and when they find a check, they gave it to someone to wash it.” (There is no evidence to support it was an inside job, Fox 5 noted.)

One Long Island family, the Kudlers, is still trying to recover more than $2,000 from Chase after discovering three of their checks had been altered, telling FOX 5 that the date, amount and name of the payee had all been changed.

The Oklahoma City case demonstrates how large check fraud operations have become. The group may have used stolen USPS arrow keys to open blue mailboxes and steal mail across Oklahoma City, KOCO 5 reported. The criminals also reportedly tried to recruit others in plain sight, advertising their scheme on social media.

Fraudsters also have moved beyond just washing ink off checks with acetone and now “cook” them as well. This technique involves scanning the information on the original, including the signature and editing it in software such as Photoshop, then printing counterfeits, David Maimon, a cybersecurity expert and professor at Georgia State University, explained to KHOU 11.

“I strongly recommend folks to simply avoid writing checks and mailing them using USPS,” he added. You can also arrange for your bank to send checks on your behalf.

Still insist on mailing checks? How to protect your money

If you still want to mail physical checks, the first step experts recommend is to reduce the number of stops in your mail’s delivery journey. If you can take the check straight to the post office, do it. Joe Bernardo, head of fraud and claims at Wells Fargo, told USA Today, “The more touch points there are along the way, the more bad things can happen.” You should also avoid keeping checks in your mailbox overnight.

You can also request checks with watermarks or holograms that may be more secure, and writing in permanent ink is safer than using a ballpoint pen. Also be sure not to leave a blank space where a criminal is more likely to fill in their own information.