PITTSBURGH (KDKA) - There is a new warning from the U.S. Postal Service:
Do not send checks through the mail.

Americans wrote 3.4 billion checks last year, according to the Federal Reserve,
and many of them end up in the U.S. Postal Service to pay bills for one thing or
another.

Now, the post office is warning its users: Do not put checks in the mail. Why?
Because more of them are getting stolen than ever.

"Unfortunately, this is something that can happen," says Caitlin Driscoll of the better
business bureau.

The Postal Service reports that complaints of mail theft doubled in 2021, and banks
report that check fraud jumped to 680,000 reports last year, up from 300,000 the
year before.

So, who is stealing these checks?

It's not entirely clear; it could be workers at postal distribution centers who recognize
a check in an envelope or, perhaps more likely, thieves who fish envelopes out of
mailboxes.

That has led the post office in some areas to install highly-secured mailboxes with
small openings that won't take many envelopes, forcing customers to get out of their
cars and go into the post office.

Whoever is doing the theft, data on your bank checks can be used by sophisticated
scam artists who can also change the name of the payee and even the amount on
the check.