How do scammers get away with cashing a fraudulent check?

I remember that movie Catch me if You Can, based on a true story. Leo Dicaprio played an expert check scammer. Then, to reduce his sentence, he helped the FBI on check fraud cases. He was an expert on all the techniques used. Even in the time depicted in the movie, people would steal checks from the mail and use special solutions to erase information. They would then make the checks out to themselves for higher amounts. I am sure there are much more sophisticated techniques these days.

A credit card that I only use for an occasional purchase online and never take out of the house was cloned recently. That card didn't even have a PIN activated. Nothing is foolproof these days, it seems. My bank did a fraud investigation and credited my account pretty quickly, at least.



The mail where I live is untrustworthy and people rarely use checks. I have had my bank account since 2016 and have only written one check, when we bought our house. Like everyone I know, I pay bills online and have never had an issue. The only problem I ever had was that credit card. Oh, I just saw that your husband doesn't want to do online banking. Maybe the check problems might make him more open to the idea?

I forgot about the main character in ‘Catch me if you Can’. I’ll need to watch it again sometime. I heard of the special solution that they use too.

The scammer definitely knew what they were doing as the check was under $1000 which is a misdemeanor if they’re caught.

They’d be in more trouble if it was more than that. They’d arouse suspicion too.

Sorry to hear about your card being cloned That’s scary!