What you can do to protect yourself from mail theft and check fraud.
There are steps you can take to help reduce your risk of getting taken advantage of by someone engaging in a mail theft-related check fraud scheme. Here are some tips to keep in mind to help protect yourself from check fraud when sending money to others:
- Pay digitally. Reduce the number of checks you send and utilize card or digital payment methods instead. Consider using when sending money to family or friends, for example.
- Use your bank to send checks on your behalf. If you do have to pay for something via check, see if your bank offers a service. Using this service will mean that the payment information will be printed onto a check, which makes it more difficult for a scammer to remove the information compared to a hand-written personal check.
- Consider the type of check-writing pen you use. If you do write a check, make sure you’re using a black gel pen. These types of pens have ink that’s more difficult to remove.
- Use mailboxes that are secure. If you need to send any checks by mail, use the mailbox inside of a USPS facility rather than at a curbside USPS mailbox or your residential outgoing mail.
- Keep your bank account information safe. Don’t share or post your bank account information anywhere publicly, and never share account information with anyone with whom you did not initiate the communication. Do not allow websites to save your routing/transit and account number information.
With a little caution and know-how, you can avoid becoming the victim of a check fraud scam.
Personally, I do not use my phone for banking. I don’t have my credit card information tied to my phone either. I also use two step authentications to get into my bank accounts.
I have seen clients who have to deal with bank fraud.