Check alteration and washing

DEFINITION: Process of changing checks intended for others, by simple alteration or exposure to chemical substances, to collect funds from bank accounts fraudulently.

SIGNIFICANCE: The fraudulent cashing of stolen checks costs individuals and businesses in the United States billions of dollars each year. Unfortunately, many altered checks are not detected until funds have already been transferred and the criminals are long gone. Security features are constantly evolving to combat this problem.

Check alteration is a very common problem in the United States, causing losses to victims of many millions of dollars each year. A common scenario is as follows: Someone writes a check to pay a bill and places the envelope containing the check in a residential mailbox, raising the box’s red flag so that the letter carrier will pick up the outgoing mail. Unfortunately, the red flag also alerts a criminal that outgoing mail is in the box, and when no one is around the criminal rifles through the mail and takes anything that looks like it might contain a check. After collecting checks from a number of different mailboxes in the neighborhood, the criminal alters them, either by washing and rewriting them or by using simpler methods, so that he or she can cash them using a false identity. By the time the victims discover the withdrawal of funds from their accounts, the criminal has moved on to another identity or another town.

How Checks Are Changed

In the most basic type of check alteration, the perpetrator simply makes small changes to a check using a pen or other writing instrument similar enough to the one that was used to write the check to avoid detection. Examples of this include an individual changing a check for five dollars to a check for five thousand dollars by adding extra zeros and the word “thousand.” Another example involves checks made out to the IRS (Internal Revenue Service). A criminal can take these checks and by adding two pen strokes change “IRS” to read “MRS.” The criminal can then add a last name, making the check payable to “MRS. SMITH” or something similar, and then uses false identification to cash the check.

More complex check alteration involves actually removing the writing on the “payable to” line of the check, along with the amount. When this is done through the submersion of the check in a bath of fluid to dissolve the ink, it is known as check washing. Practiced criminals, and even some amateurs, can use a variety of household products to remove the inks of many commonly used pens from handwritten checks.

Common substances such as acetone (found in many products, including nail polish remover), bleach, and isopropyl alcohol can be used to wash checks. Different chemicals are often effective at removing different types of ink, and seasoned check washers can recognize many inks and choose just the right solutions to accomplish their goal. Check washers protect the signatures on the checks during the washing process, either by covering them with tape or by holding them out of the wash solution, so that after the chemicals have done their work, they have blank, signed checks that they can rewrite for any amount. Check washers often have many false identities supported by false driver’s licenses, identification cards, and other documentation to help them cash checks without raising suspicion. After the checks are cashed, the victims often remain ignorant of the for days or weeks, and by the time they report the crimes, the criminals have usually moved on.

Detection and Prevention

The most basic types of check alteration, those involving the simple addition or modification of writing on the payee line or in the amount of the check, can often be detected through close visual inspection or examination of the check with a magnifying glass or microscope. Very rarely is it possible for a criminal to find exactly the same type of pen used to write the check originally or to match the handwriting of the original check writer perfectly. Unfortunately, bank tellers, store clerks, and others in the first line of defense against check fraud rarely have the training, or the time, to do significant examination of each check that is presented for cashing. Because of this, most of even the most basic types of check alteration can slip through undetected; they are not caught until it is too late, when the victims whose accounts were charged receive their bank statements.

It can be difficult to detect check washing, but careful examination of a check can often reveal clues. In some cases, especially when the check washer is an amateur, some traces of the original ink markings may be visible. One problem with detecting is that when the process does not work well, the criminal usually will simply not attempt to pass that particular check. This is good for the person whose check was stolen; instead of losing hundreds or even thousands of dollars, the individual is simply inconvenienced by the apparent disappearance of a check that never made it to where it was intended to go. Checks that seem to have been lost in the mail may have been stolen by individuals who planned to wash them; thus persons who realize that checks they have written are missing should be extremely vigilant.

Increasingly, security measures are being built into checks, especially high-security checks, that make it more difficult for criminals to copy or wash the checks and also make it easier for professionals to detect check alteration. Features of checks that can deter attempts to pass photocopied versions include watermarks, thermal verification seals, and the use of colored fibers woven into the paper. These features do not necessarily protect against washing, however. The best protection against check washing that is offered by check manufacturers involves the treatment of checks with chemicals that cause the paper to change color if it is submerged in any of the solutions commonly used by check washers.

Some simpler means of protecting against check alteration and washing are also available. One of these is the use of gel pens, instead of ballpoints or other pens, to write and sign checks. Gel inks are much more difficult to wash successfully because these inks enter the paper fibers of checks and become trapped. Another way to prevent check washing is to prevent the stealing of mail containing checks. People can help to protect themselves from check fraud by mailing bill payments only at post offices or by handing such mail directly to letter carriers. If they must place mail containing checks in home or business mailboxes for pickup, they should be careful to put the mail out as close to the pickup time as possible.

Although most financial transactions in the 2020s were done electronically, many people still used checks to pay certain fees or bills. According to the US Treasury Department’s Financial Crime Enforcement Network, check fraud increased 23 percent from 2020 to 2021. An estimated $24 billion was lost on check fraud annually in the 2020s.

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