Guarding Your Checks: How Check-Washing Fraud Is Rising and How to Protect Yourself

Check-washing is a rising, low-tech form of fraud where criminals chemically erase a recipient’s name and dollar amount from mailed checks and rewrite them for themselves. A California couple lost about $12,000 and were reimbursed by Chase, highlighting how difficult it can be to recover stolen funds. The piece urges abandoning or limiting paper checks in favor of safer payment methods and following FBI/Postal Service guidance to protect against check fraud, including safer payment options, vigilant mail handling, and monitoring bank activity.