Thieves are stealing paper checks from mailboxes, 'washing' them with nail polish remover, and filling in new amounts and payees — causing endless grief for victims and their banks, which typically foot the bill.
Personal checks "now go for up to $250" apiece — up from $125 to $175 earlier this year, Maimon tells Axios. Washed business checks now sell for as much as $650, up from $250."It's gone berserk," says Frank McKenna, a fraud consultant to the banking industry, who traces the phenomenon to the pandemic-eraEvidence-Based Cybersecurity Research GroupThe most illicit activity takes place on Telegram, he said — though how-to videos on check-washing can also be found on YouTube.
While California, New York, New Jersey and Florida are among the biggest hotbeds, "we're seeing this spreading to distant states," Maimon tells Axios.with a check has evolved considerably: Fraudsters now offer the check-writer's Social Security number and account balances, obtained from the dark web.
"We're talking about a very sophisticated supply chain at this point," Maimon says. "It's just mind-boggling how things have evolved."The U.S. Postal Service has been putting warning signs on blue mailboxes, telling people to use online bill pay or bring their letters to a post office.
"Banks typically reimburse their customers when a fraudulent or stolen check gets posted against their account, but getting repaid for a bad check has become a long, drawn-out affair.""It's really frustrating that banks are being held liable because the Postal Service can't secure the mail," says Paul Benda, senior vice president for operational risk and cybersecurity at the American Bankers Association.
For its part, the Postal Inspection Service says it has made "significant security enhancements" to mailboxes, and touts that postal inspectors made 1,511 arrests for mail theft in 2021, with 1,263 convictions.Frank Albergo, president of the Postal Police Officers Association, calls that a drop in the bucket.
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