help with fraud at "America's Cash Express"

[KemalOzsinanlar]

What is the name of your state? Virginia.

Here is the situation.

My employer mail my paychecks to my home address. Three times in the past two months my paycheck has been stolen from my mailbox. The person (I dont know who) who stole the paycheck forged my signature and cashed all the checks succesfully at this "America's Cash Express" check cashing place in my neighborhood.

Im sure there is some sorrt of law to check state I.D. when cashing checks? Why didnt this business check the I.D. of whoever stole my checks? Isnt that against the law? If they did check the person's I.D. that would have seen that this person is lying.

Can some-one help me please.

I wont be able to get my money back untill my employers corporation pursues the situation (my employers told me that i have to sign some forgery papers and get it notorized and then the corporation "Manpower" will look into it). From what they tell me this could take several months.

Thanks in advance for any kind of help. Im looking into getting a lawyer, but dont know what kind deals with this stuff.

 

[racer72]

In the mean time, get a PO box and DO NOT have your checks sent to your home address. I would have done this after the first one. Have you contacted the police and postmaster?

 

[KemalOzsinanlar]

In the mean time, get a PO box and DO NOT have your checks sent to your home address. I would have done this after the first one. Have you contacted the police and postmaster?

Yes, I have now changed the address. I have not contacted the police or postmaster. Should I contact them when I get a lawyer or as soon as possible? What should I tell them, the same thing I wrote above?

thanks you so much for your help.

 

[racer72]

Yep.

 

[AmosMoses]

Kemal

With today's high quality and relatively inexpensive scanners, inkjet printers, hermetic sealers, etc., it isn't hard to real quick like whip up a fairly good rendition of an ID, as well as a check. Some people make a criminal livelihood out of fake payroll checks, etc., so the person cashing your check may well have had a fair rendition of an ID with them that identified them as you. Especially since you were a repeat customer! It is remarkable what someone with a PC with a few peripherals and a little ingenuity can "accomplish". I saw fairly recently where a traffic stop netted four 20ish males with two laptops and a few printers/scanners/etc., in the trunk that turned out to be VERY wanted. They had been traveling around making fake payroll checks all over, and this is how they were caught; pure chance. Granted, their thumbprints were all over the US, but there were none on file to compare them to!

Do as racer said to protect yourself ASAP, and remember this in the future. Best of luck to you.

 

[nhunsb1]

The police should be contacted as soon as possible and should have been contacted as soon as the crime occurred.

 

[Souix]

Absolutely! ID theft is the biggest crime these days. I had my identity stolen a few years ago. I was alerted to it when I started getting overdrawn notices from my bank. The perp had made checks in my name, put my driver's license # on them and was going around town writing checks on my account. Eventually my bank account was drained including my reserves. I filed a police report right away and notified the bank. I too had to sign alot of Affidavits and had them notarized indicating that I was a victim of fraud.

In your case, someone has stolen your ID to cash your payroll checks. What you need to do now is file a police report and they can also tell you all the steps you need to take to protect yourself. Since my driver's license was used fraudulently I had to get my license number changed too. In addition to this there are several internet sites that will give you a list of things you need to start doing now, like getting your credit report and putting flags on it, etc.

Get busy, its a headache and it will take awhile to get things square, but you must take action now. Good Luck!

 

[nhunsb1]

I would also check my credit report every couple of months to be on the safe side. After about a year if nothing odd has shown up, you can check less frequently (every year or so).