BOYNTON BEACH, Fla. — After WPTV spoke with a woman who lost $50,000 in a check-washing scheme last week, NewsChannel5 is now hearing from another victim, who mailed a check at the same post office.
WPTV first met Boynton Beach resident Lorna Swartz last week.
“Forged my signature, left the amount,” Swartz said. “I feel abandoned. I would say I do not write checks at all anymore.”
She called WPTV after losing $50,000 when she tried to mail a check to the IRS at the post office at Jog Road and Boynton Beach Boulevard. Now, WPTV is learning this wasn’t an isolated incident.
“The check was for $113 and I see a withdraw out of my checking account in the amount of $2,560 and I said what is this,” Daniel Castiglione, who also lives in Boynton Beach, told WPTV.
Castiglione contacted WPTV after dropping off a check at the same location. His check was also washed.
“I started to think it through a little bit, put two and two together, and I said maybe somebody stole something from my check,” Castiglione said.
WPTV put in a request for the total number of current check fraud cases in Boynton Beach related to that post office and we are still waiting on that.
In a statement, USPS spokesperson said:
We ask customers to observe the pickup times on collection boxes and if after the last scheduled pickup to come inside the building to deposit their mail if at a Post Office. If at another location, observe the pickup time and do not deposit if after scheduled time. At home, pick up your mail from your residential mailbox as soon as delivered (if possible).
Sign up for Informed Delivery®, a free and optional notification feature that gives residential consumers the ability to digitally preview their letter-sized mail and manage their packages scheduled to arrive soon. You’ll preview images of incoming mail, as well as status updates about your incoming and outbound packages. You can see those notifications in a morning Daily Digest email, or at any time via the dashboard from your phone, computer, or the USPS Mobile® app.
As mailpieces travel through the USPS® network, they go through high-speed sorting machines, which take a picture of the front (the side with the address). Informed Delivery® shows you grayscale images of those mailpieces arriving soon to your address. (You’ll also see color images of some things, like catalogs or magazines.)
Informed Delivery® will also show you the status of incoming and outbound packages.
To register, go to informeddelivery.usps.com.
“You know, something should be done about this,” Castiglione said. “You know, you have a lot of older people living in South Florida who I imagine still write checks manually. They’re gonna get hit.”