Hello, My name is JAYME.

Many of you are still writing checks (out of your check book) to pay your various bills. Ironically this is becoming even more risky than paying your bills online. Check washing is still a common criminal activity. Basically criminals find checks that have been placed in people’s home mailboxes. It’s literally a “red flag” for them to target your mailbox when they see it raised, signaling to them that a check is in the mail. They can easily wash off the payee information. There are a few ways to deter such activity.

• If you haven’t already, start paying your bills online! For most people, their banks offer bill pay online for free. Basically you tell the bank to write a check for you to the desired payee. The bank then sends out the check to their address on your behalf. The best part is that you save postage!
• If you must hand-write a check, stop placing your checks in your mailbox for the mail carrier to pickup and start placing your bills in a USPS mailbox.
• Write your checks with wash-proof ink.