Saw someone stealing my neighbor's mail this morning!!

[BWVDenise]

I happened to be walking by my living room window when I noticed a car stopping. Then it backed up. That made me wonder what was going on, so I watched. This woman got out of her car, walked up to my neighbor's mailbox (which is right next to the front door) and took the outgoing mail! Then she tucked it under her jacket on the way back to her car! I called the police right away and when my neighbor got home she confirmed that she was not expecting anyone to pick anything up at her house and the mail had been credit card payments...so, she had to call and cancel her credit cards and call her bank.
I know one thing, I won't be leaving bill payments in my mailbox anymore!!

 

[FOJMO]

I hope you got a description of the car and a license plate #. I know this is a common practice among thieves and, as a rule, I never leave any mail for pickup in my mailbox. I'm glad you were able to witness it for her.

 

[bumcat]

We had the same problem in our neighborhood about a yr ago. We were told that they are stealing the checks and somehow making it payable to themselves and also changing the amounts. I never understood the whole thing but never ever do I leave my bills in the mailbox. IMO that is no diff. than leaving money in the mailbox. They also have access to all credit card info.
It's just not worth the risk.

 

[cgcw]

Oh My!

I leave my outgoing mail all of the time in my box which is attached to my home. If I see that it's not our regular carrier, though, I will take it out and mail it myself. Something about that familiar face. Besides, I feel my regular carrier probably has a good feeling as to what's going on from my mailbox anyway.

But, after reading this, I think I'll start dropping all of my important mail in the box myself.

 

[Annie&Hallie'sMom]

OMG! I always leave mail out for the carrier to pick up.

You are a good neighbor. Hope they catch the fink,

 

[mickeyfan1]

She needs to call her bank and cancel the checks and freeze the account. If the stealer "washes" the checks, they can clean out her bank account. A friend here lost 1000 out of his account.

Always mail either in a blue USPS box, or at the post office. Never use your home box, tempting as it is.

 

[mrsv98]

There was a scam in our area last year where people were stealing mail out of boxes and then literally washing them, rewriting the recipient and the amount and then cashing them. The police put articles in the paper and on the news that no one should leave outgoing mail in their boxes.

 

[cinlee3]

That's why I never put any outgoing mail in my mailbox. I always pick up my mail as soon as it is delivered too.

 

[RUDisney]

Because I work in a bank and am responsible for the item processing area, I can tell you that these washed checks are unbelievable. We once found one of our cashier's checks that had been washed. A customer had bought it to help a friend to go to school in Nigeria. His friend never got it, but it was processed at a bank in Yemin for much more than the original check. They didn't wash the authorized signature off of the check, just the payee and amount. Our automated reconcilement program caught it in time for us to return it as a fraudulent item without us suffering any loss.

We now use one of those punchout thingys in our check preparation areas to "pound" the amount straight through the check.

Unfortunately, consumers don't have this option.

 

[Rock'n Robin]

Isn't it awful what things have come to? There is an apartment complex by us with a blue box and I always drop my mail there. However, I work during the day and worry what is happening with my mail until 3:15!
Robin M.

 

[cmbelle]

That happened to my step-mom. Some couple stole the mail out of their box and "washed" the check to get $3,000. I had never heard about that until it happened to my family. For goodness sake, what is our society coming to when we can't even leave mail in our own mailbox??

 

[seashoreCM]

You should not write checks with washable ink, such as from a felt tip pen.

By the way, wouldn't a washed check be considered a forgery?

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[Boots]

How awful! Glad you saw it happen!!!

 

[Pin Wizard]

Washed checks? How do they do that???

 

[RitaZ.]

Your neighbor is very lucky that you saw this happen.

About two years ago, there was something on our local news about this type of scam.

I leave my mail in our mailbox for our carrier to pick-up, I think I'll just take our mail to the post office from now on.

 

[Krisu]

I never heard about "washing" checks before Will certainly be more careful now with mail.

 

[d.kurz]

Originally posted by seashoreCM
You should not write checks with washable ink, such as from a felt tip pen.

From what I saw, it does not matter what type of pen you use. Any ink can be "washed". And it's a chemical process. I saw it on our local news.

 

[RUDisney]

Check washing is a chemical process. You'd think that you'd be able to tell, as if a check had been through a washing machine and dryer, but you'd never be able to tell that the check was altered in any way.

The only way that the check would be a forgery, is if the authorized signature was altered. Otherwise, it is considered a fraudulent check, or an altered check. These are equal crimes, insofar as the bank is concerned, but technically, they are different.

 

[marlasmom]

Strange this should come up now. Just yesterday we were awakened by a police officer who said they had recovered mail addressed to us from someone they stopped for speeding. She had mail addressed to other people too. Now it's a hassle - we have to go to another town to get the mail and then to the police department in our own town to make a report there.

i had applied for a new social security card to replace the old one I lost and she had that. She could do major damage with that. She also had some of those so-called 'convenience" checks that credit card companies mail out. Just think what she could do with that.

We will have to be very watchful with our credit cards, get the mail as soon as it is deposited and never again pay bills by putting the checks in our mail box.

It's like when my daughter was pickpocketed and the thief got her social security number. That thief opened charge accounts everywhere in sarah's name to the tune of about $30,000, wrote bad checks. Gave an address and when the police went to it, the woman said that my daughter had been her roommate but was killed in a car accident. She even went so far as to get a driver's license in Sarah's name and with Sarah's social security number on it. it said she was black, 5'10" and 185 pounds. My daughter is blond, blue-eyed, 5'4" and 120 pounds. But before she got the new license she was using Sarah's. People just don't bother to check and one store told me that would rather take the risk and lose the sale than run a credit check before opening up a new charge account and letting someone charge $900.