People have been throwing away free money this year — though it’s not necessarily their fault. Residents in California have accidentally tossed out their $1,050 Middle Class Tax Refund checks (the biggest in state history), as GOBankingRates.com reported in early December. And in Houston, news station KHOU noted that many Texas had also mistakenly discarded their $600 stimulus payments. It’s also happened in Virginia, reports the News Leader. And people in those states are not alone.
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In all cases, residents have said they assumed the delivery was junk mail or a scam and put the envelope right into the trash or shredder rather than being duped by and wasting their time on possible fraudsters. As NBC News has reported, part of the issue is that many of these checks aren’t checks at all but rather prepaid debit cards, and they’re enclosed in envelopes that look very similar to junk mail. Not to mention the FTC has warned consumers about “refund and recovery” scams that have people on guard.
Sometimes the mail may have a random return address, usually to a Post Office Box, and the plain white envelope has no federal insignia that would make it look like official documents that you’d want to pay attention to. It’s not just state payments either says NBC News, as the IRS has…
