We’ve become so used to high-tech cybercrime that we may sometimes forget about the vulnerability of our mailboxes.
But an old-school, low-tech scam is surging and is more than enough reason to avoid or limit writing paper checks altogether. And the recent predicament faced by a California couple who reached out to me shows how challenging it can be to retrieve money after a check’s been altered.
According to a joint warning from the FBI and the U.S. Postal Service, check fraud is skyrocketing. Federal data shows that reports of check fraud nearly doubled from 350,000 in 2021 to 680,000 in 2022.
It’s gotten so bad that the agencies recommend considering e-checks, ACH automatic payments and other electronic or mobile payments.
In 2010, there were just over 2,200 high-volume mail theft attacks, and by 2023, that number had skyrocketed to over 49,000, a “2,000 percent explosion,” Frank Albergo, president of the Postal Police Officers Association, said last summer during testimony before a House subcommittee.
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