The call came from a longtime business owner in Mason District, reporting the theft of several checks from the U.S. mail. The amounts were not insignificant, and he wanted to alert me to the problem. I told him that, indeed, I was aware of the problem, as I had experienced a similar situation a couple of years ago when checks in our outgoing mail apparently were stolen, altered, and cashed.
In the first case, our bank called to ask if I had written a large check to someone, whom I had never heard of previously. The thief had used our checking account number to create a new check and presented it to the bank. The fake check was signed with my name, but it was not my signature. Fortunately, the bank took action to block the release of any funds. A few days later, another check was presented for payment; this time the check looked exactly like our real check, and my signature appeared to have been traced from the original. The bank paid that check to the fraudster, and later refunded the amount to our account. While we didn’t lose money in either instance, we did have to close the account, open a new one, and then notify all direct depositors, etc. That was a lengthy aggravation to avoid!
I reported the theft attempts to Fairfax County’s financial crimes division and, later, a man was arrested in Prince George’s County with some checks, including mine, in his possession. I agreed to testify, but such financial crimes are rampant, and courts…
