Your Money Matters: Tips To Avoid Check Washing Scams (2024)

FAQs

Your Money Matters: Tips To Avoid Check Washing Scams? ›

One way to protect yourself from check washing is to use a gel pen when filling out a check. Gel ink seeps into the paper, making it unwashable, unlike other pen ink.

One way to reduce potential fraud is to pay recurring bills online. Most companies and services offer online bill pay and sometimes extend discounts for opting in to paperless account management. Financial institutions also use “positive pay” to discourage check washing fraud.

Make no mistake, individuals and businesses SHOULD be using gel ink pens when writing checks. But, this is just one tool to stop fraudsters. Individuals and business should also follow the recommendation from the USPS to drop off envelopes containing checks at the post office directly.

Check Washing & Check Theft Scams

Fraudsters are targeting paper checks sent through the mail. Once they have a check that you mailed, they use chemicals to “wash” the check allowing them to change the amount or make themselves the payee. Then, they deposit or cash your check and steal your money.

Romance scammers will encourage secrecy and will influence you to only trust them. They may try to isolate you from your family and friends. There will always be an excuse why they can't meet in person or show themselves on camera. They say they live overseas or somewhere remote, or their technology isn't working.

A permanent marker or indelible marker is a type of marker pen that is used to create permanent or semi-permanent writing on an object.

A few months back we reported on an experiment to see whether gel ink pens indeed resisted "check washing" as claimed by some pundits. The results were positive: The UniBall Signo 207 pen, in particular, was resistant to the chemicals generally used to "wash" and create bogus checks.

Use a pen that contains indelible black gel ink to write your checks. This type of ink cannot be washed away.

This special ink includes pigments that penetrate the paper's surface and render it immune to many check washing techniques. Look for our Check Safe Ink logo for all our check safe pens!

The disadvantages of gel pens are that they can tend to skip with very light pressure; the ink doesn't last as long as the same sized ballpoint refill would; and they don't write on all surfaces a ballpoint will, so shiny paper (like greetings cards) may be a problem.

How to remove ink from paper check? ›

Use acetone to erase ink.

Most nail polish remover is made of acetone, and this can be used to remove ink from paper. Apply a small amount of acetone to a cotton swab, and rub into the ink you're trying to erase. This works best on regular ballpoint pen ink. Blue ink is more easily erased than black ink.

Are Sharpie pens good for permanently marking clothing? They will mark clothing, but it will fade with frequent washing, unlike laundry markers or other fabric markers specifically made to mark fabric permanently.

Therefore, switching to gel ink pens is the best way to protect yourself from check washing threats. Gel ink not only binds to the paper better but also dries faster and does not smear, making it easier to read and more durable than ballpoints.

Acetone washing - This is the most common method used in check washing. The thief uses acetone to remove the ink from the check, leaving the signature intact. Once the ink is removed, they can alter the information on the check to make it payable to themselves.

Using a process known as check washing, mail snatchers erase the ink on a check with chemicals found in common household cleaning products and then “reuse” the checks by rewriting them to themselves. Then when you check your bank statement, you see that your check went through and the amount matches.

Security inks.

Security inks react with common eradication chemicals. These inks reduce a forger's ability to modify the printed dollar amount or alter the designated payee because when solvents are applied, a chemical reaction with the security ink distorts the appearance of the check.