Please read the message from the Richardson Police Department.
One of our Detectives asked that we inform residents that areas of N.E. Dallas, Garland, and east Richardson (so far) are seeing an exceptionally large number of check fraud cases that are originating from theft of mail from residential mailboxes.
Thieves are stealing mail, not only for credit card offers and other personal information, but for the personal checks found in routine, monthly bill payments. The criminals are chemically "washing" the checks, altering the amount and the payee, then cashing them. In other words, your check to TXU for last month's electric bill of $273. 54 could be stolen from your mailbox and the writing changed to pay "Steel Fraumue" $873.54 .
Even the U.S. Postal Service recommends that you drop mail into a postal drop box, and not leave it for pickup in your home mailbox. This warning is especially relevant to neighborhoods with front curbside or rear alley mailboxes with the little red "take me" flags. Several weeks may go by before you are notified about a delinquent payment. Then, the altered check has to go through its process. By then, any trail back to the crook has frozen over.
Remove this criminal opportunity by dropping your mail at the post office on the way to work or while running errands. A detour to the post office is nothing compared to the running around required to straighten out just one of these episodes.
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