After seeing an increase in the number of check fraud and forgery reports, Anchorage police are warning residents to protect their checks.
In the past several months, the Anchorage Police Department reports receiving more than 300 related reports. It says most of those situations could have been prevented by simply keeping an eye on checks.
APD encourages check writers to take checks directly to the United States Postal Service.
The USPS says there are ways to increase the safety of your own mailbox.
“They can go to the local hardware store and pick up the kind of mailbox that takes a key to open,” said USPS representative Dawn Peppinger. “There are some options, too, for installing cluster-size mailboxes where they have mail slots in there so only the carrier that has a key to open up the unit can collect their mail.”
The USPS has two law enforcement legs that investigate mail fraud; the Postmaster General and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service.
APD warns that falling victim to check fraud can be extremely frustrating and can cause problems that take years to resolve.