Stop the Scam - Red Flags & Washing Checks

Perry Police Department Detective Sergeant Wilcox drops in again to give us some surprising facts about how your mail can get into the hands of a criminal.

Ever heard of check washing? It's a real thing. Listen to learn more!

"Don't Become A Victim" FREE information session is June 8, 2023 at the James E. Worrall Community Center (1060 Keither Drive).

Register at https://perryrec.recdesk.com/Community/Home.

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Transcript

Tabitha Clark: 0:15

Welcome to the Inside Perry Podcast, where you've an Perry Georgia's local government. We're glad you transparent where. People make the difference whether you save few hours or lifetime your time and will be rewarding and unforgettable. I'm Tabitha Clark Communications Manager, the city of Perry. Today is episode two, Detective Sergeant Ike Wilcox with the Perry Police department. Continuing with our series on the Inside Perry podcast regarding scammers and what you need to know. We welcome back Detective Sergeant Ike Wilcox, and we're gonna talk about something that's pretty common around here as far as some security faux pas.

Detective Sergeant Wilcox: 0:59

That's right. We're having a lot of issues with mail thefts, and that is a national trend that has recently come to light to us. Some of the vulnerabilities that the postal service has have been, uh, exploited nationwide. Specifically the blue USPS drop boxes have universal keys, and they're called arrow keys. And this is something that you can Google and you can find all this information. It's public, it's not secret. Criminals all over the country are robbing postal workers. Taking that key, and then they can go into any blue post office box and open up those boxes and take every bit of mail inside of 'em, and that has the struck here in Perry.

Tabitha Clark: 1:34

You would think it would be common sense, but there's all kinds of sensitive information in those mailboxes, right?

Detective Sergeant Wilcox: 1:39

Absolutely. Yeah. Once they have that box of mail in there, I mean, whether it's a check, whether it's your identifying information, your bank account information . Whatever it is. They have the luxury of time to take it home

Tabitha Clark: 1:50

and Right. Just go through it.

Detective Sergeant Wilcox: 1:51

Absolutely.

Tabitha Clark: 1:53

How are we gonna combat that as just everyday citizens? How are we gonna prevent that? Is there a way?

Detective Sergeant Wilcox: 1:58

So unfortunately, I think we're at a point to where we need to stop relying on convenience. Mm-hmm. And try to be a little more vigilant and, and one of the ways we're telling people to do that is just first off, limit the transactions that you have with the postal service. Nearly everyone who does business these days have some sort of an electronic means. If you can do that, then I would definitely go that route with it. If you do place something in with the postal service, I would suggest doing it in a, like a non-identifying package. Don't put a check in an envelope that is shaped only for a check. For example, you know, use envelopes that are opaque. Can't be seen through. If you need to have mail a check, maybe put it inside of a greeting card envelope. Wrap it with another piece of paper so you can't hold it up to a light and see through it. Tell what it is. Avoid using the blue drop boxes, period. If you can help it, go into the post office, take the extra time, get outta the vehicle, walk inside and actually deposit the piece of mail inside the post office.

. Tabitha Clark: 2:58

What about from home? Is it safer?

Detective Sergeant Wilcox: 3:01

So, I don't know if this is where the term, the phrase actually originated. You've heard of things being red flags. Well, if you mail something from your house, what do you have on your mailbox?

Tabitha Clark: 3:09

You have a red flag.

Detective Sergeant Wilcox: 3:10

You have a little red flag, and when you stick that red flag up in the air, it's waving and advertising to everyone. That you have a piece of outgoing mail right now that may not be a piece of mail that's highly sensitive.

Tabitha Clark: 3:21

Mm-hmm.

Detective Sergeant Wilcox: 3:22

But it may be right. The person out looking to steal mail, all they're looking for is a sign. There's no use to them. They discard it. You lose your piece of mail. If it is valuable to them, then it hits your bank account.

Tabitha Clark: 3:33

For those of us that still use checks, that's also a concern.

Detective Sergeant Wilcox: 3:38

So just as I mentioned with the blue boxes, the checks are kind of an obsolete way of payment, right? They, they do still work, but again, you give a criminal enough time and they'll figure out how to exploit it. I mentioned in my first episode that we're hosting a class on June the

eighth at 6: 3:54

00 PM at the Worrall Center. If you come to that, I'm gonna have a couple of really interesting videos I can show you of how to actually watch checks.

Tabitha Clark: 4:02

Oh, wow. You can wash checks?

Detective Sergeant Wilcox: 4:04

Absolutely. Um, just a simple chemical process and, uh, again, I, I don't want people to think I'm giving away all the secrets. This, this is not infor new information. Mm-hmm. It is information you can find online easily, but, with chemicals that you can buy at any hardware store. You can take a check and wash that ink off, uh, and then you can rewrite it to whatever amount you need.

Tabitha Clark: 4:27

Oh, wow.

Detective Sergeant Wilcox: 4:28

Or to the who the check is being paid to. Mm-hmm. And all that information.

Tabitha Clark: 4:32

So it doesn't actually mess with the actual check itself?

Detective Sergeant Wilcox: 4:35

No, it doesn't. Now, there's a simple way to prevent that, and that is using a gel ink. So gel ink is a pigmented ink instead of a dye ink. And the acetone cannot wash the pigment itself off of the check. It can wash the dye of a dye ink.

Tabitha Clark: 4:51

Mm-hmm.

Detective Sergeant Wilcox: 4:52

So a simple way of preventing that is throw away every old

Tabitha Clark: 4:56

dye a pin that you got, pin that

Detective Sergeant Wilcox: 4:58

you have, and just use gel ink. From, from now on now.

Tabitha Clark: 5:01

Oh, that's a great tip. Yes. Wow. That's one tip on how to do, how to prevent kind of check fraud and things like that. What other do you have?

Detective Sergeant Wilcox: 5:09

Something else I wanna show you and and I mentioned the gel ink that that can help for someone who's wanting to wash a check. However, you can go to the store or online storage. You can go to amazon.com and you can buy a printer right now for $280 and, and printer on checks. Now those are put into place for commercial sell for legitimate businesses, right? Who have a need for that. Unfortunately, they cannot figure out who's gonna use 'em, right? You know, for, for bad. If you do send a check and it is captured, someone can simply reprint that check using your routing and account number, and they can put whatever kind of information on it they want. So the best suggestion is if you must write a check, Follow the steps that I explained as far as, uh, trying to conceal it, make sure the person you're sending it to knows it's coming and um, and

Tabitha Clark: 5:57

That's a good tip.

Detective Sergeant Wilcox: 5:58

And a lot of banks have something called positive pay now. And for those of you who are not familiar with it, that is a system where you can go in and pre-approve the check you write. So you tell the bank in advance what checks you want approved, therefore

Tabitha Clark: 6:13

Oh wow. Okay.

Detective Sergeant Wilcox: 6:14

If they start getting other checks, That aren't on your list, they will not approve them.

Tabitha Clark: 6:18

They know something's up. Mm-hmm.

Detective Sergeant Wilcox: 6:19

Yes. And that has worked for several of our victims here, uh, in Perry. So, uh

Tabitha Clark: 6:24

Oh,, that's a great service.

Detective Sergeant Wilcox: 6:24

Some banks don't offer that service. Mm-hmm. Others do. Mm-hmm. If you're going to use a checking account heavily, then that is just by far the best way that you can protect your accountant's by doing that.

Tabitha Clark: 6:37

Well, that's some great tips. So I know that you're gonna go much more in depth into your June 8th. Don't become a victim informational session, which is completely free. So give our listeners kind of a summary of what you hope to accomplish and the takeaways that they might have.

Detective Sergeant Wilcox: 6:53

I mentioned again in the first episode that the best defense to scams is a good offense, and that's because scams, whether it be through trickery or whether it be through theft of a check, like we've discussed this time, they, they're ever evolving. Now there's, there are always new ones,

Tabitha Clark: 7:10

New ways. Yes.

Detective Sergeant Wilcox: 7:11

Uh, we cannot possibly stay ahead of those. Unfortunately. We learn 'em on the back end of things and we spend a lot of our time in recovery versus proactive enforcement. So our goal through this is, this is, uh, prevention through education. We want to educate as many of our citizens as possible, and if nothing else is accomplished, the next time they encounter a scam or next time they go to deposit a check or next time they advertise to a criminal unknowingly. Right. That they have the thought process just to stop, take a minute and think it through before they move forward.

Tabitha Clark: 7:45

Awesome. Well, it's gonna be a great informational session and you can pre-register for that course online, um, through our online registration. Thank you for listening to the Inside Perry Podcast.. We invite you to join us on June 8th for the free information session. Don't become a victim beginning at 6:00 PM Remember, anyone can become a victim of a scam, so we encourage you to take some time to learn how to stop the problem before it becomes a problem. Registration information is listed in the show notes. If you like inside Perry, we encourage you to subscribe and share the podcast with your friends and family. We'd love for you to leave us a review on your favorite podcast platform. We look forward to seeing you around in our amazing community where Georgia comes together.