How to protect your checks from mail theft and check washing

Check washing is when someone changes the payee name, and often the dollar amount, on a check and deposits it. Sometimes the checks are stolen from mailboxes and washed in chemicals to remove the ink. Some scammers use copiers or scanners to print fake copies of a check instead.¹ The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) calls check washing a type of check fraud that continues to grow.⁴

One sign it has happened to you: you sent a check, it was cashed, but the person you sent it to says it never arrived.¹

The steps below take a minute or two each time you write, mail or wait for a check. Keep this page open the next time you pay a bill by check.

When you write a check

1. Use a black permanent marker or black gel ink. The CFPB says these are harder for fraudsters to remove.⁴

When you mail a check

1. Take it to your local Post Office, or put it in a blue collection box before the last pickup.¹ The CFPB suggests taking checks directly to a post office instead of using your own mailbox.⁴
2. For something important, consider asking for Signature Confirmation for the person you are mailing it to.²
3. Do not send cash in the mail.²

When you are expecting a check

1. Get your mail often. Never leave mail in your mailbox overnight.¹ Try not to leave letters or packages in your mailbox or at your door for any length of time.²
2. If a check, credit card or other valuable mail you are expecting does not arrive, contact the sender as soon as possible and ask about it.²
3. If you are going away, have your mail held at the Post Office or picked up by a friend or neighbor.¹ The Postal Service calls this its Hold Mail Service.²
4. If you move, file a change of address with the Postal Service, and let your bank and other financial institutions know too.²

If someone asks you to move money for them

The Postal Inspection Service warns about money mules: people who receive and pass on money taken from fraud victims. Some know they are helping criminals. Others do not realize it.¹ The CFPB says not to agree to receive money, deposit a check, or send money or packages for people you do not know or have not met, and to be wary of jobs that promise easy money.⁴

If a check was stolen or washed

1. File a report with the Postal Inspection Service, your local police department and your credit reporting bureau.¹
2. To report mail theft to the Postal Inspection Service, use the report form at uspis.gov/report or call 1-877-876-2455.³
3. If a crime is happening right now, call 911.³