The Check Is (Lost) in the Mail

Checks worth at least $534,000 have gone missing after being mailed in Frederick County, Virginia. Authorities in the region suspect it may be an inside job, and that the checks are being stolen from envelopes only after they are turned over to the U.S. Postal Service.

“We believe from the complaints it is from mail that has been deposited into the blue boxes and inside the post office,” Sheriff Lenny Millholland told the Daily Signal. “I know they are deposited into our postal facility and our blue boxes, but what happens to mail once it is in the system remains to be seen.”

The scope of the problem hasn’t stopped growing. One customer contacted the sheriff’s office on Aug. 31 to say she had mailed two different packets of checks from Winchester to Dallas in early July, but neither arrived.

The check fraud isn’t limited to Frederick County. Authorities in Clarke and Loudoun Counties have also reported disappearing checks. Millholland warns this may be part of a massive check-washing operation that may exist far beyond Virginia.

“Check washing scams involve changing the payee names and often the dollar amounts on checks and fraudulently depositing them. Occasionally, these checks are stolen from mailboxes and washed in chemicals to remove the ink,” the United States Postal Inspection Service writes. “In fact, Postal Inspectors recover more than $1 billion in counterfeit checks and money orders every year.”

The money often isn’t recovered. Millholland said he himself once dealt with a check that was stolen from the mail. “It is not a good experience, dealing with no response or satisfaction,” he told the Daily Signal. In that case, a major bank cashed his check without apparently asking for identification. In the latest scam, he suspects the thieves may be spotting the checks because they were in distinctive envelopes.

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To protect against check washing, the post office recommends that you “deposit your outgoing mail in blue collection boxes before the last pickup or at your local Post Office.” But the sheriff warned that in the current circumstances, taking these steps isn’t enough. “Figure out if you can pay the charges online through your bank and check your accounts daily to see if your checks have cleared and if the proper person cashed it,” he advises.

Even when mail isn’t stolen, service in Virginia is less than reliable. The post office’s Office of the Inspector General recently reported that the Commonwealth is the lowest-ranked region for the percentage of parcels delivered on time. Just three-quarters of such packages arrive promptly, far less than the national average of 84.1%.

Rep. Jen Kiggans, a Republican running for reelection in the 2nd Congressional District, zeroed in on problems at one facility in her district. “I have continued to hear complaints from constituents regarding the performance of the Suffolk Post Office and the most recent results contained within the USPS OIG interim report related to the delivery operations and property conditions is deeply concerning,” she said in April. She sent a letter to the Virginia District manager demanding improvements.

In response, the Postal Service audited its offices in Suffolk, Virginia Beach, Lynchburg, and Norfolk. Its most recent report faulted all four operations for delayed mail delivery, poor package scanning, and missing arrow keys (which open blue mailboxes).

The Daily Signal reached out to a postal inspector to ask about ongoing investigations. We will update this story if the U.S. Postal Inspection Service responds. For his part, Millholland said he has not heard from postal officials about the missing checks.