Stolen Checks

[NorthBeachPerso]

I couldn't find the thread someone started about having checks stolen. They caught the (alleged) guy in St. Mary's:

St. Mary's County Postal Worker Charged with Stealing Checks Worth Over $84,000 From Delivery Route

A United States Postal Service (USPS) employee in California, Maryland, has been charged with multiple federal offenses following allegations of mail theft and check fraud. Darian Smith, employed as a rural carrier associate at the California Post Office, is accused of stealing checks from mail...

smnewsnet.com

 

[RoseRed]

Typo in paragraph 4?

 

[limblips]

An absolute genius.

 

[vraiblonde]

Where was he cashing or depositing these checks that weren't made out to him?

Edit: Helps if you actually read the story What the hell, PNC?

 

[Kyle]

If Kamala wins, watch him get promoted to a cabinet position.

 

[my-thyme]

See, SEE!!!

When I was hired (which was a LOOONNNNG time ago), was put thru the background check wringer, and an all-day long test.

Now, they hire them right off the street.

Although, a rural carrier is a contract employee, get paid what they bid to do the job. No retirement. And, this dude was a substitute, the contractor can hire ANYONE they want for that job.

Really makes me ashamed to say I ever worked for this outfit.

 

[Gilligan]

Small time thief...a drop in the bucket compared to the number of checks stolen from southern MD businesses by the more organized operation at the DC sorting facility. I've never seen any indication that USPS ever charged anyone there yet.

 

[Kyle]

Small time thief...a drop in the bucket compared to the number of checks stolen from southern MD businesses by the more organized operation at the DC sorting facility. I've never seen any indication that USPS ever charged anyone there yet.

They'll all be promoted.

 

[Gilligan]

Where was he cashing or depositing these checks that weren't made out to him?

Edit: Helps if you actually read the story What the hell, PNC?

The hundreds of stolen business checks (including ours) were deposited electronically in many banks around the country, after the checks were altered to change the payee and payee address. In some cases, the amounts were also altered. This California carrier is simply a small-time copycat; the "big boys" up in Capitol Heights successfully stole hundreds of thousands of dollars..probably millions.

 

[vraiblonde]

The hundreds of stolen business checks (including ours) were deposited electronically in many banks around the country, after the checks were altered to change the payee and payee address. In some cases, the amounts were also altered. This California carrier is simply a small-time copycat; the "big boys" up in Capitol Heights successfully stole hundreds of thousands of dollars..probably millions.

But here's my logic trail:

The second check, valued at $5,585.84, was sent to victim one from an individual in Connecticut on January 10, 2024, but never arrived. This check was also cashed and deposited into Smith’s account on December 23, 2024.

Intended payee notifies payor that the check never arrived;
Payor stops payment on that check and issues a new one;
Crook goes to deposit the check almost a year later;
Bank flags the check as invalid and refuses the deposit;
Alternately the bank notices the check has been tampered with and calls the cops.

Is that not how it works? The article mentions that some of the checks were rejected, but not all of them. So why weren't they rejected? And you'd think after the first rejected check there would be a flag on his account, so that the second time he tried to deposit a check that wasn't his the law would get involved.

This seems like the dumbest crime ever, and yet somehow people get away with it.

 

[OccamsRazor]

Crook goes to deposit the check almost a year later;

Crook must have deposited that check from their Delorean. Doing 88 miles per hour!

 

[Kyle]

Maybe it was reparations.

 

[Clem72]

Where was he cashing or depositing these checks that weren't made out to him?

Edit: Helps if you actually read the story What the hell, PNC?

Well he probably signed them over to himself. It says they didn't accept the majority of the checks. Doesn't sound like a high-speed kind of operation so I doubt he was "washing" them.

 

[Clem72]

But here's my logic trail:



Intended payee notifies payor that the check never arrived;
Payor stops payment on that check and issues a new one;
Crook goes to deposit the check almost a year later;
Bank flags the check as invalid and refuses the deposit;
Alternately the bank notices the check has been tampered with and calls the cops.

Is that not how it works? The article mentions that some of the checks were rejected, but not all of them. So why weren't they rejected? And you'd think after the first rejected check there would be a flag on his account, so that the second time he tried to deposit a check that wasn't his the law would get involved.

This seems like the dumbest crime ever, and yet somehow people get away with it.

They probably caught onto him right away once he actually started cashing them. I also wouldn't put it past them to let him continue for a short while to collect evidence and/or enhance the charges.

 

[Gilligan]

But here's my logic trail:



Intended payee notifies payor that the check never arrived;
Payor stops payment on that check and issues a new one;
Crook goes to deposit the check almost a year later;
Bank flags the check as invalid and refuses the deposit;
Alternately the bank notices the check has been tampered with and calls the cops.

Is that not how it works? The article mentions that some of the checks were rejected, but not all of them. So why weren't they rejected? And you'd think after the first rejected check there would be a flag on his account, so that the second time he tried to deposit a check that wasn't his the law would get involved.

This seems like the dumbest crime ever, and yet somehow people get away with it.

The larger theft ring operation is different and more sophisticated:
1. Business checks (easily identified because they are in "window" envelopes and addressee is a business) are skimmed out of the sorting stream in the Capitol Heights center. The checks in question are posted from multiple southern MD post offices.

2. The stolen checks are sold (or handed over, pending kickback $) to operators that"wash" them using various digital methods to alter the payee, address, and, sometimes, the amount. See 4, below, regarding how they "select" payees.

3. Only the "best" checks are washed; the rest are trashed. Out of more than a dozen of our checks that were stolen, "only" the three largest were cashed, for a total of over $40,000.

4. The washing operations have an inventory of hacked personal bank accounts at their disposal. They'll electronically deposit a washed check in one, wait for it to clear, transfer that money out right away, and the person whose account was used has no clue it happened until its all done and gone. I googled some of the names and addresses of the account holders...the bogus "payees"..and they were all middle-class homes in neighborhoods all around the US. I suspect that they also set up and use dummy bank accounts they set up for the same purpose, but all of our cashed checks went through legit individual accounts throughout the country.

The fact that this huge operation has never been "caught" attests to the extent that senior management USPS people are at least aware if not directly involved. It's big money, we're talking about, after all.

We had to stop using window envelopes and revert to hand addressed ones for most outgoing checks..PITA extra work for our office manager. We set up ACH to pay key vendors larger sums. If we have to send a large check by mail, it goes via registered mail, signature required.

 

[vraiblonde]

The larger theft ring operation is different and more sophisticated:
1. Business checks (easily identified because they are in "window" envelopes and addressee is a business) are skimmed out of the sorting stream in the Capitol Heights center. The checks in question are posted from multiple southern MD post offices.

2. The stolen checks are sold (or handed over, pending kickback $) to operators that"wash" them using various digital methods to alter the payee, address, and, sometimes, the amount. See 4, below, regarding how they "select" payees.

3. Only the "best" checks are washed; the rest are trashed. Out of more than a dozen of our checks that were stolen, "only" the three largest were cashed, for a total of over $40,000.

4. The washing operations have an inventory of hacked personal bank accounts at their disposal. They'll electronically deposit a washed check in one, wait for it to clear, transfer that money out right away, and the person whose account was used has no clue it happened until its all done and gone. I googled some of the names and addresses of the account holders...the bogus "payees"..and they were all middle-class homes in neighborhoods all around the US.

The fact that this huge operation has never been "caught" attests to the extent that senior management USPS people are at least aware if not directly involved. It's big money, we're talking about, after all.

We had to stop using window envelopes and revert to hand addressed ones for most outgoing checks..PITA extra work for our office manager. We set up ACH to pay key vendors larger sums. If we have to send a large check by mail, it goes via registered mail, signature required.

See, this is why I wouldn't make a good criminal. It would have never occurred to me to go to all that trouble just to steal checks. Also I wouldn't steal checks anyway, but that's beside the point.

 

[Gilligan]

See, this is why I wouldn't make a good criminal. It would have never occurred to me to go to all that trouble just to steal checks. Also I wouldn't steal checks anyway, but that's beside the point.

"just to steal checks"? Heck...we're talking about big money here. Just between my company, TPD's, and a buddy's machine shop, we were nicked for well over 100 grand. And that's just us three...the the thefts were rampant all over southern MD. Any post office whose mail ends up in Capitol Heights.