Why You Should Be Worrying About The Rise In Check Fraud And Thieves Stealing Your Mail

I didn’t assume thieves could be so brazen to steal mail. In any case, it’s a federal crime. But an more and more quantity of theft is going on the place checks are stolen from mail.

Checks stolen from snail mail should not troublesome to perpetrate. It’s simple to identify a normal envelope containing a examine. Thieves then rip the try of the envelope, change the payee to themselves or create new pretend checks.

I understand how they work since this occurred to me whereas I used to be managing my father’s property after he died a number of years in the past. When my banker referred to as me to ask if I had cashed a examine in Maryland (the place I don’t dwell and hadn’t been), I advised him to name the police and shut the account.

Fortuitously, the banker’s fast motion prevented the lack of cash from my father’s account. I wasn’t chargeable for the stolen examine and I instantly reported it to my native police division. My financial institution instantly flagged the incident for his or her fraud division. I signed an affidavit testifying to the fraud for the financial institution and I used to be on my method.

These days I’ve seen studies of robbers taking the “grasp keys” of house mail containers from postal supply staff in order that they’ll rifle via mail for checks. This sort of crime is just not abating, in accordance with the Monetary Crimes Enforcement Community of the U.S. Treasury (FinCen).

“Regardless of the declining use of checks in the USA, criminals have been more and more concentrating on the U.S. Mail for the reason that COVID-19 pandemic to commit examine fraud,” FinCen reported in an alert earlier this yr.

“The US Postal Service (USPS) delivers almost 130 billion items of U.S. Mail yearly to over 160 million residential and enterprise addresses throughout the USA. From March 2020 via February 2021, the USPIS acquired 299,020 mail theft complaints, which was a rise of 161% in contrast with the identical interval a yr earlier.”

How do you do keep away from this rising fraud? That is what the US Postal Inspection Service (USPIS) suggests:

• Decide up Your Mail Promptly. Don’t depart it in your mailbox for days. Thieves typically search for indicators that somebody is away.
• Inquire About Overdue Mail. If you don’t obtain a examine, bank card, or different invaluable mail you’re anticipating, contact the sender as quickly as attainable and inquire about it. Typically when “the examine is within the mail” it hasn’t gotten to you.
• Don’t Ship Money. Watch out about what you ship. Don’t danger sending money within the mail. It’s a nasty concept as a result of money is well noticed in an envelope.
• Use ‘Maintain for PickUp.’ When delivery packages, use the Maintain for PickUp possibility, and the recipients can gather the package deal at your native Publish Workplace.
• Request Signature Affirmation. When mailing one thing vital, think about requesting USPS Signature Affirmation for the supposed recipient. I’ve used licensed mail if I’m mailing one thing vital.
• File Change of Handle. For those who transfer, be sure to file a change of tackle with the Postal Service and let your monetary establishments know as nicely.

In my examine fraud case, the story had a satisfying ending. Native police referred to as postal inspectors, who ultimately caught the perpetrator.

Assume you’ve been a mail theft sufferer? Report mail theft-related examine fraud to the USPIS at 1-877-876-2455 to report the incident.