In an age of electronic payments, check writing may seem like a quaint relic of the past. Yet more than half of Americans still write checks, so the practice is not extinct. Unfortunately, check fraud is running rampant. Here’s how to write a check safely to avoid getting ripped off.
The prevalence of paper check fraud
The number of checks the Federal Reserve collects has dropped by 82 percent over the last 30 years, but banks report nearly 700,000 check fraud cases annually. Criminals steal mail containing checks from residential mailboxes and even outdoor tank-like blue U.S. Postal Service boxes. Then, they remove the writing from the checks and change the payee and/or amount. The prevalence of identity and check theft via stolen mail is one reason consumer advocates urge conversion to secure online payments.
How to handle checks to avoid becoming a victim
To protect yourself, adopt the following practices.
- Fill out checks using a gel pen or fine-point Sharpie. These are harder for criminals to “wash” with chemicals that will erase ballpoint pen ink.
- Write the dollar amount and the cents amount right against one another in the check’s numeric box so there’s no room for a thief to add digits to the dollar amount.
- When writing out the check amount in words, draw a line through the unused space on the line to the very end.
- Include as little personal information as possible on checks to avoid becoming a victim of identity theft. You should not have your Social Security or driver’s license number preprinted on your checks. If a store clerk needs this information, they’ll ask. Respond by writing out the number yourself rather than saying it aloud to other customers.
- When mailing a check, use a security envelope with cross-hatching on the interior or wrap the check in a piece of paper.
- Drop check payments off inside the post office. Home mailboxes are too vulnerable to theft.
Related – Protecting Your Personal Information After a Data Breach
