U.S. Postal Service officials are urging people to avoid dropping mail in blue collection boxes and instead deliver mail in person, particularly when it contains a check.
Police in Crafton, Pennsylvania, reported three recent check-washing incidents tied to an outdoor mailbox at the local post office, reflecting a broader nationwide problem.
According to the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, check washing and related mail-theft schemes cost Americans more than $1 billion annually.
This process involves thieves stealing checks from mailboxes and using household chemicals to dissolve the ink, keeping the signature intact while rewriting the payee and inflating the dollar amount before cashing the check.
To protect against this, officials recommend paying electronically when possible, using Zelle, Venmo or another bill-pay service, or using black indelible gel pens for any checks that must be written. It’s also been suggested to hand-deliver checks rather than leaving them in mailboxes, and to regularly monitor bank accounts and cashed-check images.
If fraud is suspected, officials advise to contact the bank’s fraud department, file a police report, and report the theft to postal inspectors through the United States Postal Inspection Services’s online complaint system.
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