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The FBI and USPS Are Warning You: Check Fraud Is Back and It's Getting Worse

A detailed view of a check from Small Business Solutions Inc. to John Doe, amounting to $2,350 for an invoice payment, set on a wooden desk with secure documents, a pen, and office items.
A detailed view of a check from Small Business Solutions Inc. to John Doe, amounting to $2,350 for an invoice payment, set on a wooden desk with secure documents, a pen, and office items.


If you still write paper checks — for vendors, rent, utilities, or payroll — this one is for you.


In January 2025, the FBI and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service issued a joint public alert: check fraud is rising, and a significant amount of it is being enabled through stolen mail.


Suspicious Activity Reports related to check fraud nearly doubled from 2021 to 2023. Financial institutions filed more than 682,000 of them in 2024 alone.


Here's how it works.


  • Criminals steal checks directly from mailboxes — residential boxes, USPS blue collection boxes, even postal facilities.

  • Once they have a check, one of the technique's used is called check washing: they use chemicals to erase the original ink, then rewrite the check to a new payee and a higher dollar amount.

  • By the time the fraud is detected, the money is already gone.


What makes this especially frustrating is the timing. Federal regulations require banks to make check funds available within a short window — often too short to catch the fraud before the criminal withdraws the cash. So even when your bank does everything right, the damage is often already done.


The FBI's alert isn't just for individuals.


This affects small businesses and nonprofits who use checks to pay vendors, reimburse staff, or send out grants and donations.


A few things you can do right now:

  • Switch to electronic payments wherever possible — ACH, Zelle for Business, or bill pay through your bank

  • If you must send a check, drop it inside the post office — not in an outdoor collection box

  • Sign up for USPS Informed Delivery (it's free) so you get a daily preview of your incoming mail and can catch anything missing

  • Write checks in black gel ink, which is harder to wash than regular ballpoint

  • Never leave outgoing checks in an unlocked mailbox overnight


If you think a check you sent or received has been tampered with, contact your bank immediately and file a report with the USPS Inspection Service at uspis.gov/report or by calling 1-877-876-2455. You can also file with the FBI at ic3.gov.


This isn't a new crime. It's an old one that's been reinvented — and right now, it's thriving. Don't let your business become part of the next statistic.



Source: FBI/IC3 Public Service Announcement, January 27, 2025 — ic3.gov/PSA/2025/PSA250127


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Key Terms


Check Washing — The use of chemicals to physically alter a stolen check, typically changing the original payee name and the dollar amount so the check can be cashed fraudulently.


Check Cooking — The digital manipulation of an image of a stolen check using photo editing software and high-quality printers to manufacture counterfeit checks. Unlike check washing, check cooking allows a criminal to produce multiple fraudulent checks from a single stolen check image.


Suspicious Activity Report (SAR) — A report filed by a financial institution when it knows, suspects, or has reason to suspect that a transaction involves funds from illegal activity, is designed to evade federal reporting requirements, or serves no apparent lawful purpose.


USPS Informed Delivery — A free service from the U.S. Postal Service that sends you a daily email preview of incoming mail and package tracking, so you can anticipate and monitor what's arriving.



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