Check Washing

What is "Check Washing" you ask? Until this morning I'd never heard of the term either, but after reading an excellent article written by Sean Patrick Kane I was enlightened to both the process and the best defense against check washing. Check washing is the process of taking a check that has been written, protecting the signature section, washing the ink from the rest of the written part of the check, and then writing in a different name and amount.

In general I'm not worried about things like this, but after reading the article I thought it was worth sharing. While this wasn't what happened to us, we did have our car broken into a few years ago and a blank check stolen, so I know what a pain it can be to go through the process of stopping payment on checks, get new accounts, and deal with everything else related to this sort of crime. In case you don't feel like reading the article, which I really recommend (why else would I have it in my blog), in a nutshell the conclusion is that you should use a "Gel Pen" when you write checks. The ink in a gel pen is different then those found in a standard ball point or felt tip pen, and is pretty much unaffected by the various methods used by check washers.

see ya,
Brad