Mail theft check washing is a kind of financial fraud involving criminal rings that steal paper checks from the mail then rewrite them to steal funds. Members of Congress are considering a bill to crack down on the practice.
The police department in the town of Orange – just northeast of Charlottesville – has more than 50 open cases of mail fraud. It’s a rapidly growing problem for a tiny agency doing its best to solve crimes for victims of snail-mail organized crime.
Deputy Police Chief Michael Utz says it’s gotten so bad in Orange that he’s dedicated one of his investigators solely to handle check fraud.
"A lot of times the victims aren't aware until there is a draw on the account, or they are contacted by a third party that is, in good faith, says, 'Hey, I received this check. Is this valid?' And then they're like, 'No, that's not a valid check. That's fraudulent.' But the third-party portion is basically out of our jurisdiction," Utz says.
That's why the chief of police in Orange is working with Congressman Eugene Vindman of Woodbridge, who’s introduced legislation to investigate check fraud, mail theft and postal employee misconduct.
"Only three U.S. Postal Service Office of Inspector General special agents cover the entire Commonwealth of Virginia, so you can extrapolate," Vindman says. "You know, you have a smaller locality like Orange with 50 cases. You extrapolate that across the entire Commonwealth. This is probably a rather large problem."
He says the most important part of his bill is resources for the Office of Inspector General, making sure there are enough investigators on the job to close all the open cases and bring justice to the victims of mail theft check washing.
