A New Decade, A New Scam

[Plutonius]

Security experts are warning people to write the complete date (2020) on checks and documents.

They warn that people can alter the check / document by adding a number if the complete 2020 isn't used to make it look like it's from the previous decade.

Example: Someone writes 1/9/20 and it can be easily changed to read 1/9/2019 (last year).

I'm not sure how it would help the person who is changing a check but I can see where someone might try changing a document.

 

[Allyance]

Sounds logical, except this is not unique to "/20", this could have been applied to any date "/19" over the last decade. No harm in spelling it out to be on the safe side.

 

[Darth.Titan]

This story is much ado about nothing. Even Snopes has weighed in on it.

There haven’t been any confirmed cases of this happening yet, and the scam would seem to only be useful in very specific and fairly unusual circumstances.

Who writes checks by hand anymore anyway?

 

[konqerror]

Banks don't verify the date on most checks. Read your account terms and conditions, it will say they have right to pay regardless of date. Just like the signature, they'll only take a look at it if their algorithms suspect fraud, and it's big enough to care.

Besides, banks can and do legally pay old checks. The law says they have the option of rejecting a check after 6 months, not that they have to.

Somebody at work misplaced a check and I got it 11 months late. I know businesses have special check verification (positive pay), so I called accounting. They said it will clear perfectly fine, and it did.

 

[Mousse]

Who writes checks by hand anymore anyway?

*Raise hand* Guilty party here. I still write checks by hand. My...erm...distinctive handwriting lets my bank knows I'm the one writing the check, since my signature varies from check to check. I've had people forge my signature before, but the bank called to confirmed if I authorized that check because it wasn't written in my handwriting. They caught a couple of scammers trying to steal mah moolah over the years.