Anyone involved even a little bit on the internet, has heard of the problems with the U.S. Mail by now. During the pre-election period, expense cutbacks were widely talked about. News reports of sorting machines being removed were on television. Some people suspected that this course of events were designed to compromise mail-in ballots. Perhaps they were. However, that is not what I am writing about today.
Apparently, letters in the mail system are being stolen, or opened before they are delivered. It is now possible for bad actors to open sealed envelopes, copy the information found on checks, or copy the checks themselves. With that information, new checks are created and money is stolen. This has been reported in so many places that everyone needs to reconsider, whether you should send a check into the mail at all.
Of course, this is good news for companies such as “LifeLock” which offers various services which more or less, protects you from anything such as this. They offer many different programs which cost between $300 per year, to $350 per month. For those who choose not to do this, we are now recommending that clients not put any checks in the mail at all. For our own clients who wish to deposit money into their Raymond James accounts, they can call our office and we will show them how to send money electronically. For others, services such as Venmo and PayPal are available. It is a bit of work to contact all of your vendors to learn how not to mail checks but it is worth it. One of our clients had thirteen checks written from her bank accounts