NEW YORK–Just why check fraud is so rampant and how easy it is to go online and buy stolen checks was made apparent in a new report that stated, “Our national check-writing habit is turning into an enormous problem.”
“Check fraud is growing rapidly, and there’s one big reason: Anyone with a smartphone can download an app and within minutes get access to bundles of stolen checks that thieves are selling in open forums,” noted the New York Times.
A Times reporter said he downloaded Telegram, “a messaging app where fraudulent activity is particularly robust,” and quickly found forums selling stolen checks. The reporter then said he called the people who had written the first 20 stolen checks found for sale to ask them if they were aware that they had become victims and discovered, unsurprisingly, “They were not pleased.”
Low-Tech Operation
The report noted check fraud remains a low-tech operation that initially involves the theft of envelopes with checks in them out of mailboxes or from the post office itself. From there, thieves either use the checks themselves or sell them on platforms such as Telegram, often washing ink from the checks in the process.
The next step involves a fake identity in order to open an account with a bank or credit union, depositing the check and then withdrawing the funds.
“It’s a fast-growing business,” the Times reported. “During the first year of the pandemic, the Postal Service received 299,020 mail theft complaints, an increase of 161% from the previous year, according to the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network,” the report stated.
“Financial institutions also reported triple-digit increases. Socure, a company that sells digital identity confirmation services to banks, says it believes there may be nearly 2.5 million so-called synthetic identity accounts out there in the world, sitting in wait for nefarious dealings.
‘Easy to Find’
“The Telegram forums selling stolen checks are easy to find if you know the code words to search for,” the report continued. “I didn’t, but bank security consultants do, and they provided me with a few to try. I spent just a few minutes looking and immediately lost count of the number of checks I found for sale.”
The Best Way to Start a New Year. With Something Free.
The biggest, best and freshest news reporting in credit unions remains free! Each morning CUToday.info delivers its daily Fresh Today news update offering the latest headlines and breaking news right to your email, with the easy-to-read headlines format allowing you to click on the stories that interest you most in order to learn more. So stop paying those bank-fee-like subscription prices from other so-called “news” publications!
If you haven’t yet signed up for the new email solution on which CUToday.info has partnered with ResponseGenius, you can do so here. Signing up requires less than one minute of your time—and it’s free!
Please note that after signing up you may need to go to your Spam/Junk folder and mark the morning headlines email as safe. CUToday.info does not provide its list of readers and emails to outside parties, and we will not be contacting you to sell you an extended warranty or sending you any links so you may cash in on an inheritance you didn’t know was coming.
And did we mention it’s free?