In a concerning trend, Rye residents have been falling victim to check washing, a form of financial fraud where criminals intercept legitimate checks being sent through the mail and alter them to make fraudulent deposits.
Rye residents may have lost thousands of dollars to these scams. Check washing happens when fraudsters intercept legitimate checks by stealing them from unsecured mailboxes or other means, from businesses or even the Post Office itself. They then use chemicals like acetone or brake fluid to dissolve the ink and remove the payee’s information and the payment amount, leaving the rest of the check intact. The “washed” check becomes a clean slate for the thief to fill in a new sum and payee.
Rye resident Laura Leach noticed suspicious activity in her checking account months after using a check to donate a small amount to a local nonprofit.
“The washed check was made payable to someone I never heard of, in handwriting very unlike mine but with my signature still on the check,” said Leach. “The amount was changed from $100 to nearly $12,000. The original check was mailed from the mailbox at my house about 13 months earlier.”
Leach’s bank, Citibank, was able to fix the problem and she got her money back, but the resolution took six weeks and has had lasting consequences.
“The people in the Rye branch helped us close the old account and open a new account the day we discovered the fraud,” Leach said. “Having a new checking account was important, but of course we had many different places to notify of our new checking account num-ber, including New York State, our pension providers, Social Security, ConEdison, health insurance, etc. Plus, we had a lot of pre-set online banking payees that had to be edit- ed.”
In addition to financial loss and significant inconvenience, check washing scams can damage peoples’ trust and sense of security.
As Leach explained, “It was stressful in and of itself, and it didn’t help that everything had to be corrected in a day or two after we opened our new checking account.”
She also said she now avoids using checks whenever possible, and makes sure to hand them directly to the payee when another transaction method isn’t available.
Rye police Lt. Michael Anfuso said check washing is “definitely” a local problem, and the police department has taken reports of check washing over the last several months.
Calls to the Rye Postmaster’s office were not returned.
Anfuso recommended protecting yourself by making payments online with a secure Wi-Fi connection.
“Monitor your accounts — go online frequently to review account balances, and report any suspicious activity quickly, contact your bank as soon as possible to report any fraudulent activity,” Anfuso said. “The problem we see in these cases is we don’t know where the check is intercepted in most cases. We have had people hand deliver checks inside the post office to a teller and still have the check intercepted somewhere in transit. Report the check washing to the United States Postal Inspection Service at 1-877- 876-2455 or www.uspis.gov/ report.”
The United States Postal Inspection Service also provides the following guidelines for protecting yourself against check washing:
- When depositing mail into blue mailboxes, make sure you leave it before the last pickup of the day.
- Retrieve your mail as quickly as possible. Do not leave mail in your mailbox overnight.
- If you plan to be away, have your mail held at the local Post Office or collected regularly by someone you trust. If you suspect you have been a victim of check washing, it’s important that you contact your bank immediately and file a report with law enforcement.
