Are Checks Sent Through the Mail Vulnerable to Theft? (nytimes.com)
- Reference: 0184155958
- News link: https://news.slashdot.org/story/26/06/28/1016244/are-checks-sent-through-the-mail-vulnerable-to-theft
- Source link: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/26/your-money/paper-checks-mail-fraud.html
> In some cases, thieves may pilfer one or more checks from local mailboxes. Adam Rust, director of financial services for the Consumer Federation of America, said thieves sometimes "fish" for checks at free-standing drop boxes, using long tools with sticky pads on the ends to grab letters. In other cases, more sophisticated criminals may steal large batches of checks, copy them and then [2]sell them on the internet. Often, the purloined checks are chemically altered in what's known as "check washing" to remove the name of the recipient. The thief replaces it with a fraudulent name, and often increases the amount of the check, before cashing or depositing it.
The 63-year-old retiree's bank told her she'd waited too long to recover the funds:
> Schwab's "security guarantee," outlined on its [3]website , says that "Schwab will cover losses in any of your Schwab accounts due to unauthorized activity." But fine print at the bottom of the page notes that reimbursement "requires your timely reporting of unauthorized activity to Schwab," and that Schwab "will not be liable for additional or increased losses resulting from a failure to report unauthorized activity in a timely manner." It notes that more details are available in account agreements... Notify your bank as soon as possible, said Scott Anchin, senior vice president of strategic initiatives and policy at the independent bankers association. Banks generally allow at least 30 days and sometimes up to 90 days from the time your statement is made available to you to report suspected check fraud, he said.
So how can you avoid check fraud? Adam Rust, director of financial services for the Consumer Federation of America, just suggests that "No one should ever mail a check."
> If you must write a check, he said, try to deliver it in person or take it inside a post office to mail rather than relying on your own mailbox or public drop boxes. The American Bankers Association [4]recommends using permanent "gel" ink pens when you do write checks to reduce the risk of tampering... And if you don't already, consider using your bank's online bill payment service.
The article notes that even the U.S. federal government "has been moving away from [5]paper checks for things like benefit payments and income tax refunds, saying digital payment methods are more secure."
[1] https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/26/your-money/paper-checks-mail-fraud.html
[2] https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/09/business/stolen-checks-telegram.html
[3] https://www.schwab.com/schwabsafe/security-guarantee
[4] https://www.practicesafechecks.com/safe-check-tips
[5] https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/20/your-money/irs-paper-checks-end-tax-refund-direct-deposit.html
Checks? Yes. Just don't do it. (Score:1)
Ballots? No. Just do it.
Re:Checks? Yes. Just don't do it. (Score:4, Insightful)
It's my understanding that there's almost no ballot fraud happening at all through any means.
At least nobody has ever shown any actual evidence that it's a significant or consequential issue.
That is absolutely not true (Score:2)
At least once a week a republican gets caught altering a couple of ballots. So there's lots of Republican ballot fraud.
Oh you meant those dastardly (or was it dumbocrats, I don't remember the results of the presidential poll)
And yes the president of the United States held a poll to determine whether he should call Democrats demoncrats or dumbocrats. I will remind everyone that we are at War. Also that the price of gas is on track to shoot to $15 a gallon if that dumbass in the oval Office doesn't ha
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*Citation needed
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No.
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> Almost all ballot fraud happens through the mail.
Almost all misinformation about ballot fraud happens when republicans are trying to disenfranchise voters. Registered democrats outnumber registered republicans in this country, so preventing people from voting is a key strategy of the GOP.
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And of course very quietly, the R's tell their people to vote by mail. Because it helps guarantee turnout. With a mail in, you vote ahead. R's don't like early voting much either, except for their people. The R's have refined disenfranchisement of non-R voters to a fine art.
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> Ballots? No. Just do it.
Don't worry. The current regime has plan in place to simply not deliver mailed ballots in states that have any chance of going against your desired outcome.
To paraphrase the apocryphal Stalin: Altering one ballot is a felony. Shitcanning a million ballots is a statistic.
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Its unconstitutional. So... lets see how that works out.
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Democrats only care about the Constitution when it affects their grift. At least 90% of everything the Federal government does is obviously unconstitutional but they never complain about that.
Anyway, Muh Interstate Commerce Clause. Elections affect interstate commerce, therefore the Feds have every right to regulate them. There you go.
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> At least 90% of everything the Federal government does is obviously unconstitutional
And how do you know that?
US bank account (Score:4, Informative)
I'm not in or from the USA but I have a bank account at a US bank for the purpose of paying US based suppliers.
I interact with that account through the bank's website and can transfer money directly to it from my main bank account and make payments from that account through their website.
When I initially set up the account I assumed that those payments would be some kind of an electronic funds transfer.
Nope.
You enter the mailing address for each payee, and they print and mail a physical cheque to them from the bank.
Really.
Everything about the transaction is through their website right up to the point that they print and mail a cheque. And I still find that amazing.
Re: US bank account (Score:2)
I find it depressing that the US is so much behind
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It is even worse. The USPS doesn't even guarantee delivery, contrary to their own regulations.
Even if they do deliver it, the "standard" is now 5 to 14 business days to deliver 1st class (standard) mail.
They are supposed to scan every email so they can track it from the source. They don't. She scan it at Outgoing side from the processing center. Even then it may take days before it gets postmarked. The system is failing. Fast.
Unfortunately (Score:3)
> "If you must write a check, he said, try to deliver it in person or take it inside a post office to mail rather than relying on your own mailbox or public drop boxes. "
That was the neighborhood advice going around our area 1-2 years ago. I myself was skeptical that mail theft was going on as I had dealt with the Postal Police when managing an e-commerce site and I knew they are very good at finding things like this. Unfortunately it turned out (1) I was wrong: there was mail theft going on in our neighborhood but (2) everyone else was wrong too: the mail wasn't being stolen from blue boxes; it was being lifted from the bins behind the slot in our postal service center. The perps were eventually caught but it took far longer than I would have thought.
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I had a check stolen from a blue box outside the post office. They had been doing it for a while. They would not empty the box, they'd only take some, so the employees didn't realize someone had a key to the box that shouldn't. They took a payment with a 50 dollar check, altered it to 500, and to themselves. I saw the scan of the check and was kind of in disbelief anyone cashed it for the perp. It was clearly altered. Bank restored the funds, but now I take mail into the post office. Pretty crappy to need
Inevitable at this point (Score:2)
Being able to send payments through the mail is high-trust behavior. We no longer live in high-trust societies.
Yes. (Score:2)
This happened to us a couple of years ago - check to the IRS intercepted, washed, and redirected. Nearly cost us a fortune. We caught it in time, and were able to get the IRS paid and get the fraud reversed.
Never pay the IRS with a check. Credit card, ACH wire transfer, or EFTPS for us from then on.
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Betteridge just shit his pants.
Since The Dawn Of Time (Score:2)
Check fraud has been around since the dawn of time. Well, since the dawn of checks anyway.
Whether it's forgery, fraudulent deposits, check washing, theft from mailboxes... These have all existed for centuries. Literally nothing new. But, much more importantly, these events are such a small percentage of overall check processing that there is no incentive to change the system or process. Neither form the banks nor the check users.
Those banks that are pushing digital transactions aren't doing it because of ch
Everything is vulnerable (Score:2)
So we have fucked things up so badly that everything is a grift and everyone is gunning for you.
That said this kind of petty crime is on the downswing and there is less of it every year. That doesn't mean that it doesn't suck when you're a victim of it but the odds of you becoming a victim of it have been going down steadily for decades.
You should be much more concerned of the much bigger grifts. Yeah there is the occasional old person who had their house stolen from them because we pay for our scho
Key Fact Left Out of TFS (Score:2)
TFS neglects to mention it, but in the article it's clear why the 63-year old retiree didn't get their money back: they waited 10 months(!) to report the problem.
What is a "Check"? (Score:2)
And what is "the mail"?
Seriously, last time I held a "check" was some 20 years ago and it was from an US organization. My local bank here (Europe) told me after some confusion that they had an expert that knew how to get these cashed and a partnership with an US bank. They did not even bother to charge extra for the work, because this apparently happened very rarely.
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You are so awesome!
Yay!
Re: What is a "Check"? (Score:1)
European banks do not accept cheques anymore. I sold an apartment in Canada and getting the money transferred to Europe was very difficult.
An entire syndicate got busted (Score:2)
Even the bank tellers that were in to cash those checks
Really? (Score:5, Interesting)
By 2026, mobile money in sub-Saharan Africa has processed hundreds of billions of dollars annually across dozens of countries. Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Ghana, Senegal, Côte d'Ivoire, all have thriving mobile money ecosystems where a market trader, a farmer, a domestic worker, anyone with a $15 phone can send and receive money instantly, securely, with a transaction record, no check, no bank, no signature, no piece of paper traveling through an unlocked box.
The richest country on earth, with the most sophisticated banking system, the most advanced technology companies, and essentially universal internet access, is still moving money by writing account details on paper, signing it, putting it in an envelope, dropping it in an unlocked metal box, waiting for a government employee to physically transport it, having it scanned at a processing centre, and clearing it through a multi-day settlement system.
A Kenyan goat farmer with a Nokia from 2009 completes the same transaction in four seconds.
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I was about to post a glib hypothetical question about which millennium this story was from, but I think you got it just about covered right there.
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Seems everyone is fine with paying a fee to pay your debts.
dumb.
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> anyone with a $15 phone can send and receive money instantly, securely,
eSims. We got your phone number. Didn't even have to steal a physical thing.
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I like the finality, independence and control of cash. But since i cant send cash in the mail, a check is the next best thing. I dont want to be captive to regulations that change, fees that get added, exorbitant interest rates on unpaid balances or late payments.
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And here we have one of those "barely passed high school, late to life civics experts" now.
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Well this isn't the thread i replied to. Maybe one day Slashdot will enter the 21st century.