In the United States, the problem of checks being stolen from the mail by fraudsters has gone from bad to worse. And the problem has become so severe that even the Better Business Bureau, according to CBS News, is urging customers to avoid sending checks by mail.

Journalist Jon Delano, reporting for KDKA-TV News (CBS News’ Pittsburgh affiliate) in an article published on June 20, explains, “Americans wrote 3.4 billion checks last year, according to the Federal Reserve, and many of them end up in the U.S. Postal Service to pay bills for one thing or another. Now…. more of them are getting stolen than ever…. The Postal Service reports that complaints of mail theft doubled in 2021, and banks report that check fraud jumped to 680,000 reports last year, up from 300,000 the year before.”

Delano reports that the fraudsters who are stealing checks from the mail could range from “workers at postal distribution centers who recognize a check in an envelope” to “thieves who […]