![]() ![]() The 'underground market' for stolen personal checksĬybersecurity experts say there's a fast-growing online underground market for stolen checks. You can report stolen mail by using this link to the United States Postal Inspection Service, the primary law enforcement agency for investigating mail fraud and mail theft. She said she closed her checking account and opened a new one. Altman said she alerted her bank, Stockyards Bank, which covered her loss. ![]() With the handwritten ink erased, criminals write in higher dollar amounts on the same checks and make them out to themselves or others involved in their crimes. "Immediately, we knew something was wrong."įor decades, thieves have used easily accessible chemicals to 'wash' ink off checks without damaging the checks. "We saw on our account that it had been written to someone we'd never heard of and the amount changed from say $100 to $11,000," she said. Altman said she put the $100 check in an outdoor blue mailbox in Hyde Park and assumed it would arrive safely. "We found out in January that a local check we had written never arrived," Hamilton County resident Ann Altman said. In addition to Norwood, postal workers have been robbed at gunpoint in Columbus, Cleveland and many other cities across the country, according to news reports. In some cases, a huge increase of reported mail thefts follows the robbery of a postal worker's mailbox key. Postal Service reported that complaints about mail theft increased 161% from March 2020 through February 2021. The WCPO 9 I-Team has spent weeks investigating local mail theft, how thieves are getting easy access to the mail, and what you can do to protect yourself from becoming a victim.Ī May 2021 report by the Office of Inspector General for the U.S. "Try to avoid all blue mailboxes inside Hamilton County," Burke warned. "At this time, our victims are at a loss of over $200,000."īurke and Sheriff Charmaine McGuffey urged people to go inside post offices to mail checks, gift cards and other potentially valuable items. Ryan Burke said in a video posted Tuesday on the Sheriff's Office's Facebook page. "We are currently investigating over 40 cases throughout the county of mail theft from these mailboxes," Det. Hamilton County Sheriff's Office detectives believe thieves are using Pierani's stolen post office key to unlock large blue mailboxes around the county and steal mail. 19 when a masked man wearing a hoodie pointed a gun at his head and demanded Pierani's master mailbox key. Tenants are frustrated that the Postal Service has not been doing more to prevent the problem.CINCINNATI - Norwood postal worker Ryan Pierani said he was eating lunch in his marked post office delivery vehicle Jan. He is seen opening the mailbox with a bag and rifling through the items. "Someone has taken that key, and either given it to other people or decided to bring some friends along and swipe our mail."Ī separate theft was committed on March 22 by a man wearing gloves who appears more aware of the camera. ![]() They used a post office master key, which can open the building's front door as well as the mailboxes. Tenant Anne Benson said they didn't have to break in. They nervously look around, open the mailboxes and take at least one item. They didn't seem to be aware of the cameras. Two women and a man were seen on video entering the complex around 3 a.m. The most recent theft was early Tuesday morning. The homeowners' association says there is one master key and somehow more than one thief has apparently gotten their hands on it. But each seemed to involve different suspects. Two thefts targeting the complex in the 4300 block of Cahuenga Boulevard were caught on video. ![]() TOLUCA LAKE, LOS ANGELES (KABC) - An apartment complex in Toluca Lake has been victimized multiple times by thieves who apparently used a post office master key to enter the building and open up mailboxes. These suspects were seen taking mail from a Toluca Lake apartment complex in two separate incidents, according to the building's tenants. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |