Mailbox and Postal Blue Box Users: Check Washing Crime Reduction
Many postal blueboxes and residential
mailboxes are being robbed of handwritten checks. Thieves steal these checks and wash them. Check washing is the erasing of the written amount and altering that amount to a much greater sum. Wikipedia explains the process, but we will not detail how to wash a check.
Wikipedia also explains several means a check writer can take to reduce the possibility of being the victim of check washing. One of the easiest means of doing so is to use pens with more secure inks. The makers of pens advertise these inks in various terms. Some call the inks secure inks, fraud reducing inks and archival quality inks. Basically these inks soak into the paper better than many inks and resist most solvents used in the check washing process. The inks are found primarily in rollerball, fountain pen and gel pens. One example of the pen is
the uni-ball® 207™ Retractable Fraud Prevention Gel Pen offered on Amazon. Often you can find these pens in many of your local stores as well.
So if you place your mail in a residential mailbox or a
United States Postal Service blue collection box we suggest you take the simple step of using one of these pens to reduce becoming a victim of the rampant escalation of check washing schemes.
Reference: npmhu317.blogspot.com
