Roseville, Calif.- Writing checks and mailing them has declined in recent years as the option to pay bills online has become more common.
Check fraud and theft, however, has been growing- doubling over the last year. There are two distinct categories of crimes involving checks:
Typically, check theft occurs when the scammer is able to intercept your check before it reaches the US Postal Service or before is actually received by the recipient. There has been a rise in theft from both personal mailboxes and USPS blue maildrops by thieves breaking the locks and stealing mail. Recently a mail carrier was even robbed at gunpoint to get the master key that unlocks all USPS mailboxes.