Guilford Police are warning residents that an old-school scam called check washing has been increasing in recent months, and residents need to be aware of how to protect themselves from this crime. In these scams, thieves steal mail looking for checks, which they can then alter via chemical washing, allowing them to rewrite seemingly “real” checks to another party and for large amounts.

According to Guilford Chief of Police Butch Hyatt and a post by the department, check washing is not a new crime and has been used by thieves for decades to alter checks and steal funds directly from victims.

“Check washing reared its ugly head back in the ’90s and was a common and easy way to steal money. Scammers would drive through neighborhoods looking for mailboxes with the flags up to indicate there was mail to be picked up by the US Postal Service. Many of these mailed out letters were bills that contained checks to make payment. Scammers would then wash the checks in an acetone product, wiping away the ink but careful to leave the signature line alone. The scammers would then write the check out to themselves or someone else with a new amount and cash them.”

According to Hyatt, the department has noted an increase across the state in this crime.

“We’ve been seeing the increase happening regionally for a while now,” Hyatt said. “We were seeing a lot of this increase, particularly during the pandemic. It started with people stealing checks out of mailboxes. Both in personal mailboxes on the side of the road and actual U.S. postal mailboxes.”

In a statement from the Guilford Police Department (GPD), residents were urged to drop mail at the post office rather than place it in their roadside mailboxes.

“The postal service has implemented some new measures to the blue mailboxes, making the drop slots much smaller to reduce the ability to fish mail out of the boxes. But when feasible, always try to drop mail at the post office boxes versus your home mailbox,” according to the GPD’s statement.

According to Hyatt, residents should take precautions to ensure that they are not a target for this type of crime.

“There are a whole bunch of different ways in which they accomplish this, but that it why we recommend that people simply don’t write checks,” said Hyatt.

Hyatt was hesitant to describe the techniques thieves use for U.S. Postal boxes, but these criminals use homemade contraptions to retrieve mail from USPS blue postal boxes in hopes of finding mail containing a check. The USPS has since redesigned their drop boxes to prevent this; however, Hyatt recommends that residents either pay on line or bring mail directly to their local post office for drop off.

According to Hyatt, never place your mailbox flag in the up position; it is literally a red flag alert for those thieves looking for checks. The postal personnel will see it when they deliver your mail, and their duties require them to remove mail from your box, with or without a flag up.

“It’s a red flag for your mailperson, but it’s also a red flag for someone looking to steal checks,” Hyatt said.

Other tips include using a pen with gel ink when writing checks. According to Hyatt, the chemicals used for check washing cannot wash out gel ink. Standard ballpoint pens use ink that is easily washable.

“What we have come to learn is that these gel style pens, the chemical in the gels, are not as easily defeated with chemicals. So that is the recommendation, unlike regular ballpoint ink, which can be removed and altered quite easily,” Hyatt said.

Hyatt said that if residents notice unusual activity at mailboxes or the blue USPS mailboxes, to call the Guilford police immediately at 203-453-8061.