re: Long story. My parents and “check washing”.

Our protocol now is to never use the blue mailboxes. Always go to the main post office and mail it inside. That at least prevents theft on the sending end.

I watch the show Blue Bloods regularly. The last show had a segment on this.

The advice I just gave was from experience helping others IRL. Reporting to the post office and local police report w/ a complaint a felony fraud scam to the AG HELPS EVERYONE.

They put a case together if enough report it and bust them. Western Union was tied in 12 years ago. Who knows if a bank is now or post office worker?

The current scam on FB Marketplace is an offer to buy an expensive household good and they agree with the full offer and say 'it is acceptable" <----big hint. And they are the FIRST to reply to the ad with a quirky FB profile or a third party advocate speaking for them.

People fall for it because it is a 2 to 6 grand bedroom set(s) purchase. Therefore, a check is acceptable.

Then they mail a money order/check. The check clears, then they c/o paying the person that picked up the product. By the time you forget about it all. The check bounces.

File complaints with the Department of Financial institutions in Louisiana and the Texas Dept of Banks. Then duplicate those complaints with the CFPB and FTC. This is about shaking trees to motivate action. Their compliance departments are compelled by law to answer the complaints. The State AGs will not be able to do much but it’s worth filing with them as well.

That sucks. I would think the police is the way to go.

My mom.. 76 years old, writes checks for everything. Does nothing electronic because she doesn't trust it.

One time I was at her house and I mentioned something about my debit card and her husband told me "only poor people use debit cards". We don't really see eye to eye, never have. Mainly because he is a jackass who likes to tell people (when I say people, I mean anyone he talks to) how they should do things and that the way he does it is the right way.

We butted heads right away because I pretty much told him that when he starts to tell me what I should do or how his way is better.. To just stop because I don't fricking care and half the time has no clue what he is talking about so as hard as it is I have to be the diplomatic one and then when I get in my van I yell out all the shite I wanted to say, but according to him. If you use a debit card you are a poor.

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The $100 check turned into $7000. It was from my dad to an African/Nigerian name.

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I'd be just as concerned how the Nigerian knew a $7k check was going to clear.

Withdraw all but say $500 from the Wells Fargo account until this resolves, then close it.

Wells Fargo is btw, one of the worst rated banks for customer service, on top of being significantly fined for consumer lending fraud some years back.

Great advice.

The basic rule is the bank that dealt with the fraud perp is who is on the hook. We actually have a national consumer protection agency now until the idiots defund it. You need to file a complaint agianst BO a

LINK .

I had a recent experience with this (though for not as much). A lot of these scams are carried out with the mobile direct deposit crap which has the shittiest safety features imaginable. It's unbelievable. I'm amazed at how casual these banks are with this stuff and they must collectively lose billions because I could tell that it happens so much that it was as common as someone making a deposit or withdrawal at the bank when I called to report it (which means they must have a way of getting the fraud money back through government means or something or they would at least try to act like they give the slightest shite).

I rarely write checks out and wrote a check out for a parent for something. The check was "washed" as they say, but it was so unbelievably sloppy that I could not believe someone had success getting money from it. Not only was it clearly altered, but those morons accidentally washed my endorsement signature and signed their name instead of mine on the check and it still went through the mobile checking deposit BS.

I had to go to my bank, file some kind of report and get it notarized, but I got my money back from the bank even though the check was cashed or deposited at another bank. I had to follow up a few times, but once the right person was on it, I was good. So I would drive Wells Fargo nuts if I was you. These banks are pissing money away anyway with these avoidable scams that they don't give two shits about considering how pathetic their mobile deposit safety features are (there basically are none).

In New Orleans, this crap is so bad (shocking, I know) that some of the post offices have covers over all of the outdoor mailboxes forcing you to go inside to drop the mail off to help fight the fraud. They busted some dude in a sting on the Westbank and he had like 200+ checks on him and they estimated that he had previously ripped off like $250k from people. And some dude in Lafayette last year was estimated to have stolen up o 600k in stolen checks. If you can avoid it, don't write checks.

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You’ve always heard it in movies and pop culture “messing with the mail is a ‘federal offense’”. Still truth to that? Was it ever.

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There are a few federal mail tampering laws. One is pasted below. But just because someone commits a "federal offense" doesn't mean the FBI and Postal Inspectors are going to catch and convict them. People cheat on taxes, sell drugs, and commit mail fraud and wire fraud every day, and only a tiny percentage are caught and prosecuted.

18 U.S. Code § 1708 - Theft or receipt of stolen mail matter gen­erally

Whoever steals, takes, or abstracts, or by fraud or deception obtains, or attempts so to obtain, from or out of any mail, post office, or station thereof, letter box, mail receptacle, or any mail route or other authorized depository for mail matter, or from a letter or mail carrier, any letter, postal card, package, bag, or mail, or abstracts or removes from any such letter, package, bag, or mail, any article or thing contained therein, or secretes, embezzles, or destroys any such letter, postal card, package, bag, or mail, or any article or thing contained therein; or

Whoever steals, takes, or abstracts, or by fraud or deception obtains any letter, postal card, package, bag, or mail, or any article or thing contained therein which has been left for collection upon or adjacent to a collection box or other authorized depository of mail matter; or

Whoever buys, receives, or conceals, or unlawfully has in his possession, any letter, postal card, package, bag, or mail, or any article or thing contained therein, which has been so stolen, taken, embezzled, or abstracted, as herein described, knowing the same to have been stolen, taken, embezzled, or abstracted—

Shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than five years, or both.