How to Protect Yourself From Check Washing and Mail Theft

Check fraud has increased 385% since the pandemic, according to the U.S. Treasury Department, costing Americans over $1 billion per year. The method is disturbingly simple: thieves steal mail from residential mailboxes, use chemicals to wash the ink off checks, rewrite them for larger amounts to different payees, and cash them before the victim realizes anything is wrong. The FBI and U.S. Postal Inspection Service are actively investigating organized mail theft rings across the country, but the most effective defense starts with you.

How Check Washing Works

Check washing is a form of check fraud where criminals alter a legitimate check after it has been written and mailed. The process typically works like this:

1. Mail theft: A thief targets residential mailboxes, apartment complex mail areas, or even blue USPS collection boxes. They look for outgoing mail — especially envelopes that look like bill payments.
2. Chemical treatment: Using common household chemicals such as acetone, bleach, or specialized solvents, the criminal dissolves the ink on the check. The payee name and dollar amount are erased while the signature and other printed elements remain intact.
3. Rewriting the check: The criminal rewrites the check with a new payee name (often themselves or an accomplice) and a higher dollar amount.
4. Cashing the check: The altered check is deposited or cashed, often at a different bank or through a mobile deposit app, before the original account holder notices.

Because the check still carries the original account holder's genuine signature, banks often process these altered checks without suspicion. By the time the fraud is discovered — sometimes weeks later on a bank statement — the money is gone and the criminal has moved on.

How to Protect Your Outgoing Mail

Never Leave Outgoing Mail in Your Mailbox

Raising the red flag on your home mailbox to signal outgoing mail is an open invitation to thieves. That flag tells everyone passing by that there is mail worth stealing inside. Instead:

• Drop outgoing mail at the post office. Take checks and sensitive mail directly to a post office counter or use the indoor mail slots.
• Use USPS blue collection boxes carefully. If you must use a blue box, do so right before the posted pickup time. Mail sitting in a collection box overnight is vulnerable.
• Switch to electronic bill pay. Your bank's online bill pay service sends payments electronically or prints and mails checks from a secure facility — either way, no paper check sits in your mailbox.

Use the Right Pen

Not all ink is created equal when it comes to check washing resistance:

• Use gel ink pens (such as the Uni-ball 207 or similar gel pens). Gel ink absorbs into paper fibers and is significantly harder to wash than standard ballpoint ink.
• Pigmented ink pens also resist chemical washing better than conventional ballpoint pens.
• Avoid standard ballpoint pens for writing checks. Their oil-based ink sits on top of the paper surface and dissolves easily with common solvents.

Fill Out Checks Completely

Leave no blank space on a check that a criminal could exploit:

• Start writing the payee name at the far left of the "Pay to the Order of" line and draw a line through any remaining space.
• Write the dollar amount starting at the far left and draw a line to fill the remaining space.
• Do the same on the written amount line.

How to Protect Your Incoming Mail

Retrieve Mail Promptly

Do not let mail sit in your mailbox for hours, and never leave it overnight. Mail theft most often occurs during two windows: mid-morning after the carrier delivers and late evening when neighborhoods are quiet. Collect your mail as soon as possible after delivery.

Install a Locking Mailbox

A locking mailbox is one of the most effective physical deterrents against mail theft. These mailboxes have a slot for the mail carrier to insert mail but require a key to open and retrieve it. USPS-approved locking mailboxes are available at most hardware stores and online retailers. The one-time cost is minimal compared to the potential loss from check fraud.

Sign Up for USPS Informed Delivery

USPS Informed Delivery is a free service that sends you daily email notifications with scanned images of the mail that is on its way to your address. This lets you know exactly what to expect in your mailbox each day. If a piece of mail shown in your Informed Delivery digest never arrives, you will know something is wrong immediately — rather than discovering the theft weeks later on a bank statement.

You can sign up at informeddelivery.usps.com at no cost.

Use USPS Hold Mail When Traveling

If you are going on vacation or will be away from home, use the USPS Hold Mail service to have your mail held at the post office for up to 30 days. An overflowing mailbox is a signal to thieves that no one is home and no one is watching. You can request a hold online at usps.com or at your local post office.

Consider Going Paperless

The most effective way to eliminate check washing risk is to stop writing checks entirely. Modern alternatives include:

• Bank bill pay: Schedule payments through your bank's online portal. Most banks offer this for free.
• ACH transfers: Set up direct electronic transfers for recurring bills like rent, utilities, and insurance.
• Digital payment apps: Services like Zelle, Venmo, and PayPal can handle person-to-person payments without paper.
• Autopay: Enroll in automatic payments for recurring bills so no check ever needs to be mailed.

If you must write checks — for example, to pay a contractor or make a charitable donation — use the prevention steps outlined above and drop the check at the post office yourself.

What to Do If You Are a Victim

If you discover that a check has been stolen and washed, act immediately:

1. Contact your bank. Report the fraud and request that the compromised account be frozen or closed. Ask about their process for recovering the stolen funds — banks are generally required to reimburse customers for unauthorized transactions, but the process can take time.
2. File a police report. You will need this for your bank's fraud investigation and for any insurance claims.
3. Report to USPIS. File a mail theft complaint with the U.S. Postal Inspection Service at 1-877-876-2455 or online at uspis.gov. USPIS investigates mail theft as a federal crime.
4. Place a fraud alert. Contact one of the three credit bureaus (Equifax, Experian, or TransUnion) to place a fraud alert on your credit file. The bureau you contact is required to notify the other two.
5. Monitor your accounts. Watch all bank and credit card statements closely for at least 90 days. Check washing victims are sometimes targeted more than once.

How Your Online Presence Makes You a Target

Mail theft is not always random. Criminals increasingly use data broker and people-search sites to identify targets. These sites publish your full name, home address, phone number, and sometimes even property records and estimated income — giving thieves a roadmap to high-value mailboxes.

If your home address is publicly listed on sites like Whitepages, Spokeo, BeenVerified, or dozens of similar people-search databases, you are easier to find and target. Removing your address from these sites reduces your visibility to criminals who are selecting neighborhoods and addresses to hit.

PrivacyOn removes your personal information — including your home address — from more than 100 data broker and people-search sites. By taking your address off these databases, you make it harder for organized mail theft rings to identify you as a target. Combined with the physical security steps above, reducing your online exposure is a meaningful layer of protection against check fraud and mail theft.