It's a form of check fraud that steals hundreds of millions of dollars from people in the U.S. every year. Check-washing scammers steal mail containing checks, then alter them with a forged recipient and dollar amount. One Naples woman is learning more about the crime the hard way, after criminals drained about $10,000 from her bank account.
"I'm very frustrated, very violated," said the woman, who asked not to be identified. "There are no words to describe it."
She wrote three checks for bills Friday and put them in an outgoing mailbox, where she believes someone fished them out. When she checked her bank account online Monday morning and saw that the checks had already been cashed, she knew something was wrong.
"I was like, 'who is this Maria?' This is completely not me," the victim said. "They completely washed this entire check."
She said the scammers re-wrote and cashed the three checks for about $10,000. Naples Police detectives believe it was done by washing the checks - but there's nothing clean about it. The thieves put the checks into a chemical solution which dissolves the ink.
"It does not degrade the integrity of the check," said Lt. Seth Finman of the Naples Police Department. "It only lets the suspect erase the victim's pen strokes."
After the victim's pen strokes are dissolved, the criminals can write whatever they want in the "Pay to" and dollar amount spaces.
According to identity theft expert John Sileo, people can reduce their risk of becoming victims of check washing by:
- Investing in high-security checks
- Using gel-based pens with dark ink
- Shredding any voided checks
The U.S. Postal Inspection Service recommends dropping off mail directly at the post office to further reduce the risk.
