Some Treasure Coast law enforcement agencies reporting increase in check fraud cases

The United States has experienced a nationwide surge of check fraud in recent years, including in some areas of the Treasure Coast.

“Despite the declining use of checks in the United States, criminals have been increasingly targeting the U.S. Mail, since the COVID-19 pandemic, to commit check fraud,” the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, also known as FinCEN, wrote in an alert sent out earlier this year.

Early in the pandemic, government relief checks became an attractive target for criminals. The problem has only gotten worse and postal authorities and bank officials are warning Americans to avoid mailing checks if possible, or at least to use a secure mail drop such as inside the post office.

On the Treasure Coast, some law enforcement agencies including Port St. Lucie and Indian River County have already surpassed the number of check fraud cases investigated last year within the first seven months of 2023. Others, including Stuart and St. Lucie County, are so far seeing less cases this year than at the same time last year.

Check washing is common

Check usage has been in decline for decades as Americans have largely switched to paying for their services with credit and debit cards. Still, many people, including some older adults and small businesses, send checks through the U.S. Mail.

Today’s check fraud criminals are sophisticated criminal operations, with participants infiltrating post office distribution centers, setting up fake businesses or creating fake IDs to deposit the checks. Criminals are getting the checks or identification information by fishing mail out of U.S. postal boxes, looking for envelopes that appear to be either bill payments or checks being mailed, according to law enforcement officials.

Port St. Lucie police recorded 22 incidents of reported mail fraud with altered checks during the first seven months of 2023, which has surpassed the 20 reported incidents in 2022.

“We're seeing where people mail checks, and either the payment name or the dollar amount has changed and then fraudulently deposited by the suspects,” Port St. Lucie Police Sgt. John Dellacroce said. “... and you're looking at amounts ranging from anywhere from a couple thousand dollars to $20,000.”

More: There's an uptick in 'check washing,' mail theft in parts of Treasure Coast

One of the more common types of check fraud is "check washing," in which criminals erase or remove ink from checks with chemicals. The checks are then rewritten and cashed for large sums. It can also refer to using the routing and account numbers and other information from a stolen check to order or print a new check.

Sgt. Kevin Jaworski of the Indian River County Sheriff’s Office said his agency has seen a “substantial increase” of reported check washing in the past couple months.

“When it gets deposited and taken out of their account, they’re like, 'I didn't write a check for $1,000. I wrote it for $100’, ” Jaworski said.

A St. Lucie County Sheriff’s Office detective estimated he’s seen less than 50 cases so far in 2023, and that's lower than last year.

Detective Mitchell Masanowski with the financial crimes unit of the St. Lucie County Sheriff’s Office said most cases involving mail theft and check fraud are concentrated near more industrial areas of the county and the people stealing checks often target outgoing mail from businesses.

“Business checking accounts normally contain a larger daily balance than residential accounts,” Masanowski said. “So those are why they're more targeted. The availability of money is usually higher.”

Stuart police said 47 reports of mail theft were made last year in which the items stolen included checks, but so far this year they've had nine reports. Martin County Sheriff’s Office said they’ve had no reports of check fraud this year, while last year they had about two a month for the same time period. And in Fort Pierce, police have recorded one case of an altered check in 2023 versus two in 2022, said spokesperson Larry Croom.

Tracking down check fraud suspects can become a case of 'catch-up'

If thieves successfully swipe checks from the mail, it takes a meticulous process of washing and forging checks to cash them as their own.

And until that transaction is made, victims of the fraud can remain clueless that something’s amiss.

“We’re already behind once the call comes in,” said Detective Zach Pecci of Stuart police.

Pecci said tracking down check fraud suspects can become a case of catch-up, and take days of issuing subpoenas for information from the bank where someone deposited a fraudulent check.

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The banks are often outside of the jurisdiction where the check was first stolen and can be in a different city or state.

Many of the people stealing checks are part of organized groups with high levels of sophistication, Masanowski said.

“They're very complex operations with many subsets,” Masanowski said. “These include individuals who go out and steal the mail, individuals who reprint or wash the stolen checks, and then finally, individuals who recruit individuals to deposit the stolen washed checks, whether it be in person, which is more rare, or people that provide remote access to their bank accounts for the groups to mobile deposit the checks.”

Bryan Masmela, a U.S. Postal Service inspector of the Miami Division, said postal investigators face similar challenges as police with delays in detecting a theft.

“A lot of times, the person who actually steals the mail itself, if they're not caught in the act, is very difficult to identify,” Masmela said. “The ways you identify these individuals is actually finding out what they do with that mail afterwards, washing checks or depositing checks into banks.”

By the time a victim finds out someone cashed their checks or washed their check and cashed it, a month could pass, he said.

“And then, by the time they get that information to us and file a complaint with us, we’re about a month behind on the actual theft,” Masmela said.

Still, the USPS has good relations with financial institutions and can usually receive information directly from the banks about the potentially fraudulent activity, he said.

Preventing check fraud

Investigators across the Treasure Coast recommend people take precautions when sending checks via mail.

Making sure to deliver checks directly to the post office and keeping track of mail delivery are some of the recommended ways to prevent check fraud and monitor that your mail is OK, law enforcement officials said.

“Being more attentive to the money going out and following up to make sure that was the amount that was deducted from their accounts, are just simple tricks that could help prevent this from happening,” Jaworski said.

The USPS is also starting to construct new mailboxes that are more secure, Masmela said.

He recommended signing up for informed delivery, an online program from USPS to keep track of when mail arrives.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Mauricio La Plante is a breaking news reporter for TCPalm. Follow him on Twitter @mslaplantenews or email him at mauricio.laplante@tcpalm.com.

This article originally appeared on Treasure Coast Newspapers: law enforcement agencies investigate check fraud on treasure coast