Our office is hearing concerns about scams taking place in our area. Here are some helpful tips to protect yourself.
Check Washing
Check washing scams involve changing the payee name and sometimes the dollar amount on a check and fraudulently depositing them. Occasionally, these checks are stolen from mailboxes and washed in chemicals to remove the ink.
Ways to protect yourself:
- Use permanent gel pens to fill out checks. Scammers can erase regular ink.
- To prevent check tampering of the amount or payee, draw lines in the blank spaces of checks.
- Never leave a check in a mailbox or drop box. Go into the post office to send it.
- When possible, use tracking numbers when mailing checks.
- Ensure your payments have arrived safely.
- Use your bank’s bill pay to ensure more secure transactions.
For more information, visit: Check Washing – United States Postal Inspection Service and BanksNeverAskThat.com.
Check Fraud
Beware of requests to deposit a check or money order on behalf of someone you do not know.
To learn more, visit: Check Fraud – United States Postal Inspection Service.
Mail Fraud
Mail fraud is any fraud that uses the U.S. Mail—whether it originates in the mail, by phone, or online.
Mail fraud is investigated by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, USPS’ law enforcement arm.
To learn more about types of fraud, tips shared by the Postal Inspection Service on preventing and addressing mail fraud and how to protect yourself, visit: Mail Fraud – United States Postal Inspection Service.
If you or someone you know has been a victim of mail fraud, report it directly to the Postal Inspection Service at https://www.uspis.gov/report or by calling: (877) 876-2455.
RMV Text Scam
The Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles (RMV) is cautioning the public to beware of text messages that allege to be from the RMV that request payment or other information. Do not open these links.
More information can be found in the June, 12, 2025 Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles Press Release.
Support for Victims of Scams and Fraud
Financial strain is only part of the suffering that victims of fraud endure. This free program from AARP Fraud Watch Network and Volunteers of America (VOA) can provide emotional support for people affected by fraud.
Visit www.aarp.org/fraudsupport to learn more about the free program and register.
Remember, you are not alone. Please feel free to contact our office to talk through any of the information above.
Thank you for this information, this is very valuable!!
Please give back the freedom to pay copays in cash at the Dr.’s office. Some of us manage cash better than credit, so can we require doctor’s offices to accept cash copays at the time of our visits to avoid exposure to scams by limiting checks we mail and bills we need to pay online/ email in box hygiene.
Also, since our long, long overdue counter-terrorism strike in the illegitimate and morally degenerate Iranian terror state we are more vulnerable to cyber crime.
Might be a good idea to enable a spell checker when texting the names of countries.
Huh? Just say what you mean.
Are you saying “look in the mirror,” or is there a misnomer, or typo? If the latter, I expect better than ad hominem.
It’s good the Senator’s office is warning of the risk, it’s a far better thing not to appease the evil axis of evil regimes in: Iran, Russia, China and loosely, and not so loosely state-associated Islamists.
The Chamberlanian JCPOA was gamed an its authors gave the nihilistic death cult a legitimacy they never could have earned.
Whoosh!
It’s sad that childish ad hominem is the bar.
I’m saying it’s good the pols point out we’re under attack, (as long as it is apolitical) but we need to wield a big stick to get the Chinese and Russian crimestates to rescind their cyber and telecom scam and sapping ops.
And wherever the scams originate, India &c., &c,
If these countries cannot exercise sovereignty to stem these assaults then they are open for reprisals by the allies.
I have more scam calls than actual calls. It is truly maddening.
Thank you, Will for this update. I know 2 very smart women taken for thousands of dollars on a phone call scam. One was impersonating a grandchild supposedly in some kind of trouble and in need of money. And another invoking the person’s bank asking for them to buy bitcoin to replace a manufactured loss in their bank account.
+1 Jeremy. I’d say 90% of calls to my home phone are spam, even though my number is on the national do-not-call list and I signed up with NoMoRobo to screen my calls, but all of that catches less than half of the spam. After dealing with it for several years, I recorded a tough outgoing message that takes care of most of the rest:
“… If you are a friend, press or say 1; if you are a relative, 2; unless you are calling from prison, in which case 3; if you are begging, 4; all other please remain on the line while your call is transferred to the FBI.”
A lot of callers hang up after hearing me say “prison.” Anyone who really needs to talk to me will record a message. Public service (reverse-911) calls always get through, but no more “we’re from the IT Department, the IRS, or Social Security” calls.