Money & Finance › Fraud, scams & enforcement › Payment fraud: check, wire, card and app scams
Check fraud: mail theft, 'check washing' and Positive Pay
· Fraud or scheme
Fact, law or dataA rule, statute, definition or measured number.
Thieves steal checks from the mail, chemically 'wash' and rewrite them or copy them, and cash them through mule accounts.
See it on the Money & Finance map →How it works
Thieves rob blue collection boxes and mail carriers, sometimes for their 'arrow' master keys, and take outgoing checks. They wash the payee and amount with solvents and rewrite them, or use the printed account and routing numbers to make counterfeits, then deposit by phone app into mule accounts or sell the checks online. The main defense is Positive Pay: the business sends its bank a list of issued checks, and the bank flags any check whose number, amount or payee does not match.
Why it matters
Checks are shrinking but remain the payment type businesses report as most targeted. The surge led to FinCEN's 2023 alert, USPS's Project Safe Delivery and a 2025 order ending most federal paper checks.
Facts, rules and data
FinCEN: check-fraud reports rose from about 350,000 in 2021 to over 680,000 in 2022. Executive Order 14247 (March 25, 2025) set September 30, 2025 to stop most Treasury paper checks.
Debates and risks
Who absorbs a loss, the paying bank or the depositing bank, is fought case by case under UCC rules; how much is run by organized rings is unclear.
Connections (2)
▸Check fraud: mail theft, 'check washing' and Positive Pay drew a 2023 alert from FinCEN: Financial Crimes Enforcement NetworkFact, law or data
The connection
Banks report suspected fraud to FinCEN in Suspicious Activity Reports. When check-fraud reports nearly doubled to over 680,000 in 2022, FinCEN and the Postal Inspection Service issued an alert listing red flags and asking banks to tag reports 'FIN-2023-MAILTHEFT', which let FinCEN measure the problem.
When and why
Washington, February 27, 2023; FinCEN's follow-up analysis was published in September 2024.
How we know
The alert and FinCEN's 2024 trend analysis: 15,417 reports from 841 institutions, over $688 million, from February to August 2023.
Debates and risks
Report totals include attempts and full check amounts, so actual losses are uncertain; how much involves organized rings is still being investigated.
▸Check fraud: mail theft, 'check washing' and Positive Pay is a fast-growing form of Payment fraud: check, wire, card and app scamsFact, law or data
The connection
Check fraud is the oldest payment fraud and grew fastest after 2020, as mail theft and mobile deposit let thieves wash or counterfeit checks and cash them through mule accounts. Because checks show account and routing numbers in plain sight, one stolen check can expose an account to further fraud.
When and why
Across the US, surging in 2021–23; FinCEN and the Postal Inspection Service issued an alert in February 2023.
How we know
FinCEN suspicious-activity report counts, which nearly doubled from 2021 to 2022, and Postal Inspection Service data.
Debates and risks
Whether the shift away from checks will shrink this fraud or move the same rings to other rails is unclear.