01-02-2006

Check Washing and “The Art of the Steal”

I first read about check washing in Frank W. Abagnale’s book The Art of the Steal. Thieves use solvents to remove the ink from checks. They cover the signature with tape to preseve it and can then rewrite the payee and amounts. I just found a web page demonstrating check washing techniques. The article concludes with mostly obvious precautions of not leaving checks in your mailbox, shreding old checks, and checking statements. Less obviously, it also recommends using gel-based pens because their ink is the hardest to remove.

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Posted by Matt in general, money, reading | RSS 2.0

One Response to “Check Washing and “The Art of the Steal””
  1. jared Says:

    Though you might be interested in posting this video on check washing and how to prevent it.

    http://www.farfromboring.com/promotional-blog/2007/01/anti-check-washing-pen-uniball-1.html

    Enjoyed reading your blog.

    Jared

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