ATLANTA — Federal officials have issued an alert to banking institutions about a rise in mail check fraud. In Georgia, it's no different.
Experts, like David Maimon, said that the Peach State is one of the top 10 in the nation seeing mail theft, which in many instances has led to check washing. It’s an old scam that’s back, and thieves are walking away with tens of thousands of dollars.
"You’re talking about very high rate of fraud that we’ve never seen before," Maimon said.
He shared videos of thieves stealing mail from mailboxes. On some occasions, thieves can be seen climbing inside USPS blue boxes.
Maimon and his cybersecurity research team at Georgia State University monitor these criminals on the darknet to uncover emerging trends.
The latest includes check washing, where thieves remove the dollar amount and recipient on the check and make it their own.
"Cashing someone’s check is just the beginning of a very long road because on the check what you have is a series of details, identifiers that the criminals are now using in order to open bank (accounts), establish credit lines, ask for loans, manufacture fake driver licenses and buy weapons," he explained.
Maimon says this could happen to anyone. Mark McPherson, for example, put a $445 check to his insurance company in his mailbox and two hours later, he says he got a call from his bank.
"They asked me if I had written a check to an individual for that day for $2,700. I said no I hadn’t," McPherson recalled. "He had told them that he was an electrician who had done work for me. In the memo field, he had actually written, 'Great job!'”
Maimon says thieves will sell checks like McPherson's online for about $250, business checks, he says, go for up to $650 and arrow keys – which have access to postal service collection boxes – up to $7,000.
"You have folks who rob the mail carriers, you have folks who go and empty the USPS mailbox at 3 in the morning, then you have the folks who go and sort through the checks along with drug addicts that the criminals hire to keep working through the night, and folks who help fetch the information from credit bureaus," he listed.
Where mail theft is happening
Maimon says Georgia is one of the worst states when it comes to mail theft, with hot spots in Brookhaven, Dunwoody, Buckhead, and Columbus.
11Alive reached out to police agencies in the metro.
Brookhaven Police report 26 cases of stolen checks in the last 9 months amounting to a loss of $350,000.
Dunwoody Police are dealing with 41 incidents of mail theft in 2021, rising to 60 in 2022 and 12 so far this year.
Sandy Springs police saw 24 cases in 2022, and it's nearly twice that already this year.
The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, which issued a nationwide alert for check fraud schemes, says that while the number of people using checks has fallen, reports of mail theft and checking account fraud doubled in 2022.
How to protect yourself from mail theft
Experts believe this spike could be due to criminals who used to steal stimulus checks during the pandemic and are now looking for other ways to make money.
“I grew up in a generation where we wrote checks for everything. I now pay all my bills online," McPherson stated.
In a statement, the postal service said that it is working on a nationwide initiative to:
- Harden blue collection boxes
- Enhance collection box key and lock technology
- Institute dual authentification for change of address protocols
It adds that it is partnering with police to bring criminals to justice.
The American Association of Retired Persons recommends:
- Pay bills online
- Deliver your mail directly to a post office
- Use a pen with non-erasable ink
- Don’t keep mail sitting in your mailbox
- Monitor your bank account
- Report any suspicious activity