Like many people, Margo Anderson likes to donate to charitable causes every December.
At the end of 2020, the Morris Plains woman wrote a $50 donation check to her high school alma mater, Packer Collegiate Institute, in Brooklyn.
But on Dec. 14, she noticed a problem with her TD Bank checking account.
“I noticed a big discrepancy between what I said it had and what the bank said it had,” she said. “It turned out, because I saw the check image, someone had somehow removed all my check information and written herself — the name is Sharine Gomez, which is likely made up — a check for $4,860, which was withdrawn from my account.”