Over the past month, the Tompkins County Sheriff's Office has seen an increase in check fraud occurring through out Tompkins County. The following tactics are observed during these investigations:
Checks are being stolen from local residential mailboxes, most specifically ones their red flags up indicating to the post office that there is outgoing mail to be collected.
"Check Washing" is seen during these investigations. Check washing is when a stolen check is dipped into an over-the-counter chemical found in many stores to remove the desired ink from the checks. They often to not dip/remove the signature of the check writer and rewrite a new name and amount.
Number/Letter changing is often seen on these checks as well. For example, changing $2,500.00 to $3,500.00 by adding a line under the first "2" to make it a "3".
Our office recommends you take the following steps to help avoid yourselves falling prey to these scams:
If not too much of an inconvenience, drop off any outgoing checks to your local Post Office for delivery instead of using your mailbox.
Purchase a "Fraud Prevention" pen from any store to use when writing checks. These pens are designed for the ink to absorb into the check rather than roll ink on top of the check which "check washing" cannot remove. (SAMPLE PEN LINK IN BELOW).
When writing checks, make your letters bold and blocky using the majority of the space on the designated line. This will make check altering more difficult.
https://www.amazon.com/uni-ball-Retractable-Prevention-Barrels-Assorted/dp/B07GFSTWMX
