Boardman police are investigating a case of fraud after a resident reported that a check she mailed was stolen and altered.

The victim told officers she wrote a $2,000 check in late November to pay a credit card bill. She placed the check in an envelope and left it inside her home’s mailbox for pickup. Last week, she discovered the payment never reached her account. When she contacted her bank, she was shown an image of the check that had been altered to be payable to a person she did not know.

The incident is an example of check washing, a form of fraud where criminals steal mail from residential mailboxes or blue collection boxes and use common household chemicals—such as acetone or bleach—to erase the ink on the "pay to" and dollar amount lines. Once the original information is "washed" away, the thief writes in a new name and often a higher dollar amount, then cashes the check before the victim notices the discrepancy.

In this case, investigators believe the thief used a mobile banking app to deposit the funds on December 12, as the mobile deposit box on the check was marked and the document was endorsed on that date.

The United States Postal Inspection Service suggests several steps to avoid becoming a victim of this type of theft:

Avoid residential mailboxes for outgoing checks: Hand outgoing mail directly to a letter carrier or drop it off inside a local post office.

Use specific ink: Write checks using a gel pen with permanent, "unerasable" ink. The pigment in gel ink permeates the paper fibers, making it much harder to wash off with chemicals.

Retrieve mail daily: Do not leave mail in your box overnight, as this provides a window of opportunity for thieves.

Monitor your bank activity: Frequently check your online banking portal to ensure that processed checks match the names and amounts you originally wrote.

Promptly report fraud: If a check is missing or you find an alteration, notify your bank immediately and file a report with the Postal Inspection Service.