You know better than to put gift cards or
pay a bill and stick it in your mailbox.
It's literally like putting up a
red flag to the scammer saying hey,
come take what's in here,
which is why a lot of folks
opt for the blue mailbox.
They believe that it's a safer option,
but I got to tell you,
thieves have found a way to target
this mailbox even without breaking in.
Diana Strader makes the trip from
Stokesdale to Greensboro several
times a week to visit her aunt.
Appointments and you know stuff
like that and it's a wonderful relationship.
And there was just no way I was going
to let somebody do her like that.
And just what did someone do to Diane's aunt?
She wrote a check to
pay her spectrum bill and I took
it up to the post office on West
Market Street like I always do
every month with her bills. Somebody
had taken the check. The check
was originally for $126.86 and
they changed everything
and wrote it for $6009.
You heard right $6000
and I was in touch with a lady at the
bank who was telling me that it was
gonna be turned over to the Fraud
Department and that it could take up to
120 days for her to get her money back.
The bank's fraud investigator asked
for copies of the Spectrum bill,
the cancelled check and an affidavit and then
we gave them their 120 days and I never
heard one word back from that bank.
Never. They did not update us,
did not anything.
I called and left message after message,
email after email and it was just like
they dropped off the face of the earth.
And finally when I reached out to
you on I think it was a Thursday.
By Monday they called my aunt and said
her money would be back in the bank.
$6000 gone for more than four months.
She said to me she said you know
this has upset me so much that I
probably would have just let it go.
Because I don't know what
to do and I said no ma'am,
we're not letting this go
because it's just not right. How
often does check fraud happen
more often than you think you know?
I I often time in a lot of a lot of
my trainings will get the comment.
People still write checks and indeed they do.
Putch Hanson of Norton LifeLock
says scammers are finding new
ways to get those checks.
She also says Blue Post office
mailboxes are an easy target. They
take a water bottle, some sticky
substance around the water bottle and
kind of go fishing inside the mailbox.
And then of course then the mail sticks
to this water bottle and then they pull
it out and they have all this mail.
She says it's no secret what happens next.
Thieves use acetone like nail
Polish remover or paint thinner
to lift the ink off the check.
They changed the amount and the payees.
The next thing you know,
you're out $6000 just like Diana's aunt.
My aunt even said, you know if this story.
Helps one person, then it was worth
it so somebody else doesn't have to go
through then. Thank you so very much
because there is no doubt in my mind
that if I would not have contacted you,
I would still be dealing with this
right is right and wrong is wrong.
There are three things that you can do.
Number one, always use a gel based pen.
You can get them at Walmart or
Target the ink of a gel based
pen cannot be lifted by acetone.
#2 put alerts on your
checking account so you know.
When any transaction goes
through and for how much #3,
so many people are using mobile banking.
When you give them your check face,
scan it and then do what with it.
Yeah they throw it out making
it easy picking.
So have the conversation.
Either ask them to deposit it
in front of you and take your
check back or ask them to shred
the check when they're done.