Westerville police warn to stop sending checks in mail due to ‘washing’ scheme
WESTERVILLE, Ohio (WCMH) — The Westerville Division of Police has warned residents to stop sending checks through the mail due to dozens of “check washing” cases being reported. A…
If they "wash" the ink off the checks, doesn't that also wash off the bank info and the lines? I use permanent ink. I pay bills by check through the mail, and I receive pay for one of my side hustles with checks through the mail.
More fear porn to get people to be all electronic.
Exactly. There is no comparison with the risks associated with "online."
No, I have had it happen to me twice. It's a real thing.
How do the criminals get a hold of the checks? From getting them out of a public mail box?
The number of fraudulent transactions from online activities is off the charts.
Personally I think someone at the post office has to have been involved. There was a rash of them for about 2 months on the NW Side. I had to make police reports and fill out a fraud affidavit. Also, a friend's son wrote a check for around 100 to renew his LLC and someone cashed it for 2400. My secretary wrote a check and mailed to a court reporter for $240 and they cashed it for $9999.00. That was on my business TRUST account which is pretty flush with cash because I need it to be. It took longer to get that money back because it was a business account not personal, and they don't have the same "customer protection" stuff LOL. They sell pens now that you can't "wash" with nail polish I guess.
That does sound internal to the post office. I can't see how that is mail being taken out of the mailboxes. Some USPS employees were also involved in voter fraud. This sounds like yet another case of laws not being enforced. Also, USPS potential employees not being properly checked out before hiring. Affirmative action and labor shortage maybe?
very good point
I have had two check stolen and altered this way. They use nail polish to cover up the dollar amount and then write in a different dollar amount and payee and deposit the check electronically where any oddity may go unnoticed. The accounts I assume are set up online with a fake identity and the money stolen virtually immediately. I tried to get more information from the bank about how this scheme actually works and that's all I know. But it happened to me twice - once on a personal check and again on a business check - and I know several people that got hit here on the NW side of Chicago.
Documents that are printed by laserjet have a plastic dust fused to the paper fibers as their "ink". It is impervious to being removed with alcohol or other solvents. Yes, alcohol even dissolves "permanent" ink like Sharpies. It is used to clean whiteboards when people write on them with Sharpies by mistake.
An easy way to clean sharpie off a white board is to use a dry erase marker
Wouldn't paper be harder to remove permanent ink from than a slick white board surface? I don't know, just wondering.
I'm not sure about the mail boxes around the county but where I live they have been modified with such a small slit with drop down claws that It would be impossible to fish letters out.
Perhaps the mail carriers themselves are the thieves?
After all they are pretty good at helping steal elections....
big DEI there It's hard for me to find anyone who works for USPS in my area who I can understand.
I will choose for myself whether to use checks or not. I know that the Great Reset guys would prefer for us to go all credit cards or EFTs for their own purposes.
Here's how the scam works:
The key takeaway for me is don't deposit mail into those community boxes. If you're in an urban area, bring it inside the post office. If you're in a rural or suburban area, I wouldn't worry about it too much. It's too much effort for thieves to drive around and check each mailbox.
I doubt letter carriers are tampering with the mail. It's drilled into them that that's a federal crime and not only will they get fired, but they'll get prosecuted. There's probably a few bad apples there, but regular mail thieves in urban areas are more likely.
This reminds me of the coin shortage a few years ago. I use cash everywhere locally. But people are using apps on their phones to ride a bus or even buy a cup of coffee. The clerks usually don't have enough change to give to me so they just say don't worry. T "They" want it all electronic.
This one is real. Happened to me twice and to other people where I live. Once in a business check that was written by my secretary to a local court reporting service downstate (check was mailed from downtown Chicago) and one was a personal check stolen from presumably the mailbox, although I wouldn't doubt it if post office employees were doing this too.
I do too, sometimes even giving my loose change to pay so I can get rid of some of it. I never use any kind of card shopping locally.
I started using cash because of Catherine Austin Fitts. She started the Cash Friday movement where we were to only use cash on Friday. This is a movement against the CBDC. Then she raised it up to Cash Everyday. Here's the great part for me. I would take out cash from an ATM every week ($300) and use cash from that. If I had any left over $50 bills, I put them in a pencil box. After about one year, I had just over $6000. When I had a recent auto repair ($1450), I just took the cash out of my pencil box. Bonus - my auto shop gives 5% off if you use cash.
It's a great little habit that really pays off.
Good reason to buy a safe. Keep your cash, and guns, ammo, important papers like the title to your car, etc. in there for safe keeping.
Alternative link for people in restricted areas.
anyone that trusts the mail-in ballot scheme should mail themselves $50 from a public box and be sure to write on the envelope " CONTAINS CASH ", its only fair since the ballot envelopes are so conspicuous.
My USPS office has their drive thru boxes taped up with warning all over about tampering. They can't even secure a mail box in the own parking lot and make you park and come inside. SMH! Get security cameras or a guard.
The postal workers are in on this scheme