Thousands of dollars stolen after check-washing crime hits 3 Broward charities

Three Broward County nonprofits are for now missing out on tens of thousands of dollars in donations -- victims of a crime that could touch anyone who sends or receives checks in the mail.

More than $200,000 was raised in the 2023 Men of Style fundraiser, where men from a dozen charities and other nonprofits strut their stuff like runway models in a quest for donations.

But last month, criminals managed to intercept some checks the event organizer tried to mail to three of the charities.

That’s the first step in a crime called check-washing.

Stolen checks are dipped into trays containing a solution that erases the ink then, once dried, the checks are made out to whoever the criminal wants.

“It doesn’t take a lot of brain matter,” said U.S. Postal Inspector Ivan Ramirez. “It’s simple enough where any average consumer can buy these products over the counter and go ahead and clean the check, wash it, dry it and have it ready for their use.”

That was news to Michael Goodman, the public relations executive who coordinated the Men of Style event and placed the checks in a pickup box used by mail carriers who come inside his Oakland Park office.

“The checks were just somehow confiscated at some point in the mailing process,” Goodman said, adding the culprits “changed the name on the checks and they were cashed.”

The total amount of the fraud: $27,000.

Goodman said the checks were made out to the Art and Culture Center Hollywood, Jack and Jill Center and the Florida Children’s Theatre.

When he finally saw the cashed checks, Goodman said he was amazed. “It was the right check number. It was the right signature and I said this is so strange. The only thing different was the name” of the payee.

Ramirez, the postal inspector, said, “Unfortunately right now it’s common because everything that’s old is new again and we’re in a situation nationally where everyone is taking advantage of what’s out there.”

Easiest to intercept are checks put in public collection boxes or left in mailboxes with the flags raised on porches or roadsides.

But thieves tend to target checks they suspect are tied to the biggest back account balances.

“Usually it’s businesses,” Ramirez said. “They have a good amount of money available.”

Once victimized, it takes time to recoup the losses, if that’s even possible.

“Right now there is no recourse until there’s an investigation [by the banks] that takes up to 90 days. So just have to kind of wait and see,” said Goodman. He reported the crime this week to the Broward Sheriff’s Office and said he will inform the postal service, as well.

The hope is the banks that cashed the altered checks will make good on the payments to the charities.

To lower the risk of being a victim of check washing, you can always pay bills online, write checks with a gel point pen (their ink doesn’t dissolve as easily as other pens) or use the mail drop box inside a post office.