Re: More Check Washing Theft
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How unfortunate.
The gold-standard response to this form of fraud, of course, is to simply quit mailing checks, and use electronic payments, in which you give the payee permission to take the funds directly out of your bank account. No paper, no postage, nothing but swift invisible funds transfer. I always found check-writing, mailing, and checkbook tending tedious, so I adapted to electronic payment readily and gratefully.
But even I, though a sworn enemy of check mailing, have a few bills each year that I cannot pay by electronic transfer of funds and I must only pay by sending a check. So for those few payees, I have found useful the guidance put out by the ABA, pasted in below, on how to safely write checks. Click the link, or google ABA PRACTICE CHECK SAFETY GUIDE.
Key among the recommendations:
— Use a permanent gel pen to write checks (the ink from gel pens permeate the paper and cannot be rinsed off); and
— Fill in all spaces on the paper check completely, so fraudsters cannot rewrite them to change your intended numbers and names.
PLEASE OBSERVE & SHARE WITH ALL YOU CAN
View/Download the ABA simple Safe Checks Guide
-- 7 Proven Steps to Protect Yourself
- Use Permanent Gel Pens only
Unlike standard inks, gel's absorbed into the paper!
- Avoid Blank Spaces/Fill them in so criminals can’t
- Withhold Personal Information
- Review/Monitor your Accounts regularly
- Check Your Checks
- Regularly review your paid checks (online?)
Ensure the endorsement, amount and payee are correct
- Use CASH when you can (to save merchants card fees)
or Digital Payment Options (also most carefully)
The guidelines don’t say this, but I suspect an addressed envelope written in permanent gel ink may be a disincentive for thieves to open.
Nevertheless, anyone who can avoid writing a paper check should do so. Paper checks are buggy whips.
Nancy Roth
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