This Isn't Funny
A few weeks ago I was the victim of bank fraud. I've found that I'm not the only clueless potential victim out there, so I'm sharing my experience.
One morning I got a call from my bank asking if I'd written a check for a large amount to a person I'd never heard of. Well, no.
My account had been compromised and I needed to go in ASAP and sign a bunch of paperwork. I went.
Someone had gotten hold of a check I'd written and put in the mail. They "washed" the check--used acetone to remove the writing--then filled in their own information. I know all about this because I saw the movie "Catch Me If You Can" years ago. They had found the biggest check I write each month and bumped up the amount by a thousand dollars.
Many people have lost a lot of money, but an alert teller in the bank the scammer used recognized this customer as someone with usually low balances, so she told the woman that the money wasn't available yet and put the investigation into motion. Otherwise, we wouldn't have known anything until the business I'd written the check to complained about non-payment or we got the monthly statement and found the changed amount.
On fhis check, only the payee and the first numeral of the amount was altered, plus the line with the amount written out. The date, my signature and most of the numerals were left. Oh, and she wrote "gift" on the memo line. Cute, although I think a very specific number that is not in a round number and ends in $.53 is a rather odd amount for a gift.
When the first check didn't work for the scammers, they washed another of my checks and rewrote everything. They made this one for close to the same amount, assuming that I had enough to cover it in my account, taking a second shot at getting their grubby little hands on it. Of course, the account was closed by then.
But how did they get the checks in the first place? According to the police officer doing the investigation, even with the narrow opening in the mailbox, a piece of cardboard with a hook or clip is lowered on a piece of string and someone can empty the entire box one envelope at a time. Apparently it's a ring and the thieves use desperate people to cash the checks, giving them a small cut in return. It's a huge scam going on locally and probably in many other places.
We've always used the official mailboxes for sending checks. You know--so the checks were safe. Ha ha. Now we take them inside the post office and hope for the best.
As a last note, so far, mine is the only account at my bank to be hit twice. I can do without that kind of honor.