Mail thieves will take anything they can get their hands on – your personal information and your financial data, including check payments. They’ll find a way to make money from it.
Kelli, a San Diego businesswoman who asked us not to use her last name, discovered that the hard way. She mailed thousands of dollars in checks that were stolen and cashed. She has since learned how to make digital payments but said it will be hard to move away from writing checks as she continues to manage her properties.
“Twice a month I sit down. I know what my bills are. I write them down. I send them out,” Kelli said.
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A system that she said always worked for her until she encountered mail theft. She mailed her payments in a dropbox just outside a post office and somehow they ended up in the wrong hands.
“They altered the checks. They cashed the checks,” she explained.
The thieves took her money, but she was afraid they now had access to her financial information, so she also changed her bank account.
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Frank Albergo is the national president of the Postal Police Officers Association and told us that mail theft is a huge problem mostly fueled by check fraud.
“Walking your check into a post office is no guarantee that the check is not going to be stolen,” he explained.
Kelli showed us one of the stolen checks. She said it was altered to pay the amount of $9,600 to someone named Anthony, although it was originally written to Southern California Edison for $49.94. Fortunately, Chase Bank put a stop to this payment and notified her. That’s when she came to realize what was going on.
You might have heard that using a gel pen will prevent checks from getting washed, but Albergo said that is no longer good advice.
“We’re way beyond check washing. That prevents check washing but now criminals are printing their own checks. They get the information off of a check… and they’re printing checks,” he said.
But not all of Kelli’s checks were altered. One of the checks for $1,092 was made out to Discover and cashed by someone who endorsed it with the name of Sandra. A second check for $1,392 made out to Chase Mortgage was also seemingly cashed by the same person. Chase returned the money after she filed a claim.
But then there was a fourth check for $4,392 made out to Chase Mortgage and it’s not clear who cashed it as the signature on the back is hard to decipher. However, according to a letter from her bank, it was cashed through Wells Fargo and said they “are responsible for repayment. Unfortunately, we have not been able to recover your funds because the depositing bank has not responded to us.” The letter also said her claim was closed but would credit her account immediately if they received payment from Wells Fargo.
When we talked to Kelli she told us she was “just going to take it as a loss and move on.” She also told us she had “learned a valuable lesson – don’t write checks and put them in the mail.”
NBC 7 Responds contacted Wells Fargo after talking to Kelli and told us they’d take another look at this case. Weeks after, Kelli let us know Wells Fargo sent her the $4,392 that was taken from her. In a statement, the bank told us, “We are pleased that we could resolve this issue after receiving the required documentation to complete the process.”
Kelli says she’s very grateful to Wells Fargo and NBC 7 Responds for the help but said she is still angry because the people who did this “are still out there, they’re still doing this."
If and when you make the transition to digital payments it might be a good idea to find someone you trust that could help you through the process. You might find it’s easier than you think.
