Seniors, more likely to write checks, need a heads up
One preventative measure, all the more relevant now that the post office is not postmarking mail at time of mailing, is to bring such mail directly to the post office and asking that time sensitive mail be postmarked when you do so. This eliminates the danger of having outgoing mail stolen from mail boxes and mail slots.
Automatic bill pay carries its own hazards: inability to monitor added fees and rate changes, and difficulty canceling services which may continue withdrawing your funds after you thought you canceled,
Electronic bill pay requires using apps which an older adult may have difficulty using and requires an on-line fiscal presence which could leave an older adult open to ID theft or hacking. Some older adults and those with low income or those who reside in rural areas may lack the secure computer access needed to make electronic payments safely if they rely on public WiFi in libraries and other facilities providing computer access.
What alternative to handwritten checks do you recommend?
(old person here)
Our post office recommends bringing checks to the slot in their lobby, not leaving them in the outdoor mail boxes. Though the boxes have new skinny slots.
The spouse still insists on leaving the occasional check in our front porch mail box, and raising the flag on the box so the carrier (and everyone else) will know there's something in there. 
I just take them out.
I don't write many checks, but just won't pay anybody $4 or $5 or ?? for using a card.
maybe one solution would be to stop buying stuff online for a period of time to put the onus on the merchants whose customers don’t want to fall into the scammer trap.
Many seniors — I am one — no longer drive and a walk to a post office is not in the cards either. Maybe senior communities need to establish a secure mailbox in their clubhouse —pools, golf courses, restaurants, ballrooms, etc, etc are great, but financial security is vital.
It sounds like lower barriers to online banking are necessary as well. I don’t think it’s hard to manage sending ACH payments online, but I’ve grown up with online systems since my 20s. Online transactions have their own security hazards as well, but I think they are easier to pick up and correct, or at least mitigate future occurrences, than someone stealing a paper check.
I have always been puzzled by the attitude of many that it was somehow safer to write a check than use online payment. Every check has the "keys" to your account printed plainly on the front of the check, so I am very hesitant to ever write checks these days.
I understand and worry about the barriers of online activity for some seniors (and certain others.) But I am now a "senior" myself and my peers have pretty much universally been doing most all transactions (financial and otherwise) online for years, so I think it is just a matter of time.
My bigger worry about online activity is what happens when a person (any person, but obviously seniors especially) dies or becomes incompetent and needs help from others that those helpers can't provide for want of a phone passcode or biometric or other "security" features of the newer technologies. There are starting to be a lot of articles and apps/services professing to address this and I am keenly following it for my own planning but I am not yet sure that I have handled all that I need to in this regard.
Just as everyone should have a will and other such matters (POAs, healthcare directives, etc.), they should also have addressed appropriate access for their executors or authorized caregivers to their online life and that can be a huge list of accounts with various secure access mechanisms. If you haven't thought about this yet, you should!
For example, did you know that if you activate the "Stolen Device Protection" on an iPhone, it requires not only the passcode but also facial recognition (or perhaps other biometrics) to get access AND the facial recognition is not maintained very long through a period of unuse by the phone. I was about to activate that option on my phone, until I learned that. I have, at least, made sure that my grown children and spouse have access to my phone passcode, email passwords, and password manager master password, which should help. But I keep wondering what else I may need to do in this regard.
sac said:
I have always been puzzled by the attitude of many that it was somehow safer to write a check than use online payment. Every check has the "keys" to your account printed plainly on the front of the check, so I am very hesitant to ever write checks these days.
I understand and worry about the barriers of online activity for some seniors (and certain others.) But I am now a "senior" myself and my peers have pretty much universally been doing most all transactions (financial and otherwise) online for years, so I think it is just a matter of time.
My bigger worry about online activity is what happens when a person (any person, but obviously seniors especially) dies or becomes incompetent and needs help from others that those helpers can't provide for want of a phone passcode or biometric or other "security" features of the newer technologies. There are starting to be a lot of articles and apps/services professing to address this and I am keenly following it for my own planning but I am not yet sure that I have handled all that I need to in this regard.
Just as everyone should have a will and other such matters (POAs, healthcare directives, etc.), they should also have addressed appropriate access for their executors or authorized caregivers to their online life and that can be a huge list of accounts with various secure access mechanisms. If you haven't thought about this yet, you should!
For example, did you know that if you activate the "Stolen Device Protection" on an iPhone, it requires not only the passcode but also facial recognition (or perhaps other biometrics) to get access AND the facial recognition is not maintained very long through a period of unuse by the phone. I was about to activate that option on my phone, until I learned that. I have, at least, made sure that my grown children and spouse have access to my phone passcode, email passwords, and password manager master password, which should help. But I keep wondering what else I may need to do in this regard.
Lots of good points.
I know you can use the routing number and account number off a printed check very easily to do fraudulent ACH transactions online. I need to investigate if I can add a notification when any debit from my checking account is made.
I guess the banking industry is not interested in investing in ways for paper checks to become more secure. We’ve lived for years with the idea that the mail is a secure way to send sensitive information, but that’s clearly not the case any more.
My mom had a problem when my dad passed away. He would frequently change their passwords because he had forgotten them. This included their main email account that was what was in use for a lot of their other accounts. The cell phone was registered to his name, and there was an issue with that bill not getting paid. She wasn’t able to sort that out. She ended up creating a whole new digital footprint and pretty much started everything over again. Because she lost access to that one email, there are some other zombie accounts out there.
It is not just financial transactions that are a problem for older adults who lack computer literacy and/or access. Applications for passports, driver licenses, utility assistance programs, real property tax relief, filing Federal, State, and local taxes, monitoring EOBs, accessing formularies and in-network doctor listings and so much more are almost exclusively done online these days. Paper checks, however prone to theft, are still available. For much of the other transactions on my above list, there are no workarounds and not every older adult has a computer savvy person they can turn to for assistance.
Surely we are coming close to a point where banks will simply phase out personal checks. When I was working retail in the mid 90s we generally assumed that anyone paying with a personal check was committing some sort of fraud. I can't imagine what the ratio of legitimate transactions to scams is today.
GoSlugs said:
When I was working retail in the mid 90s we generally assumed that anyone paying with a personal check was committing some sort of fraud.
Well, no.
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From today’s NYT…
Don’t Send Checks Through the Mail. Just Don’t.
If you must, keep an eye on your account statements, experts say. Thieves steal checks from mailboxes, then alter the checks with fraudulent names.
By Ann Carrns
June 26, 2026A practice that was common not so long ago has become increasingly risky — sending checks in the mail. But if you must send money this way, scour your account statements promptly.
Skipping that advice can leave you vulnerable to check fraud, and may also make it more difficult to recover the money if you lose it.
Joan K. Atchinson, 63, a retiree who lives in Washington, D.C., is dealing with that right now.
Ms. Atchinson said in a phone interview that she was trying to recover several thousand dollars stolen when someone intercepted a check she mailed last year. The check was altered to be payable to someone else before it was cashed. After months of trying, she said, she still has not recovered payment from either of the two banks involved — Charles Schwab, where she has an account that she used to write the check, and Chase, where the falsified check was cashed. “I’ve kind of lost hope.”
How does this kind of check fraud work?
Checks sent through the Postal Service have become targets for criminals in recent years. While fewer people write checks, the checks haven’t disappeared. Two-thirds of adults say they rarely or never use paper checks, but more than a fifth either have experienced check fraud or know someone who has, according to a poll in 2025 by the Independent Community Bankers of America, a trade group.
In some cases, thieves may pilfer one or more checks from local mailboxes. Adam Rust, director of financial services for the Consumer Federation of America, said thieves sometimes “fish” for checks at free-standing drop boxes, using long tools with sticky pads on the ends to grab letters. In other cases, more sophisticated criminals may steal large batches of checks, copy them and then sell them on the internet.
Often, the purloined checks are chemically altered in what’s known as “check washing” to remove the name of the recipient. The thief replaces it with a fraudulent name, and often increases the amount of the check, before cashing or depositing it.
Ms. Atchinson appears to have been a victim of such a fraud.
She said she wrote a check in April 2025 for $3,719 from her account at Charles Schwab to pay 2024 income taxes she and her husband, Brian, owed to Maryland, where they lived previously.
Ms. Atchinson said that she didn’t recall where she had mailed the check, but that she had probably dropped it in the mail slot in the lobby of their condominium building. She recalled noticing that the payment had been deducted from her account, but said she hadn’t thought to view the electronic check image online.
Then, in February, she said, 10 months after the check was sent, the couple received a balance-due notice from the state. (It’s unclear why the tax notification took so long.) Ms. Atchinson said she had logged on to the Schwab account to obtain an image of the check, intending to use it as proof that she had paid the tax. That was when she saw, to her dismay, that the check had been changed and made payable, in unfamiliar handwriting, to a name she didn’t recognize.
The back of the check indicated that it had been deposited electronically at Chase. (Criminals tend to prefer remote options, like mobile deposit or automatic teller machines, to avoid interaction with bank personnel, the authorities say.)
Her discovery prompted her to call and email both banks multiple times and to file complaints with law enforcement agencies, she said, but she is uncertain if she will be reimbursed.
The banks involved have had some back and forth since May.
Meghan Durant, a spokeswoman for Chase, said in an email, “Unfortunately, we did not receive communication from Ms. Atchinson’s bank until over a year after the check was deposited, and there are no funds available to recover.” Chase said it had not received a “formal” claim from Schwab indicating that Chase was responsible for paying the funds. It added that it took such matters “seriously” and that the account had been closed.
Tatiana Stead, a spokeswoman for Schwab, said the bank had submitted Ms. Atchinson’s affidavit to Chase and received a response on May 15 “advising that there were no funds available to recover.”
Ms. Atchinson said that she had contacted Schwab immediately when she had become aware of the fraud, noting that she had been a customer for “decades,” but that it hadn’t referred her case to a fraud specialist until May.
Ms. Stead sent an email to The New York Times on Wednesday saying, in part, “We sympathize with Ms. Atchinson.” But it added, “Timely reporting can significantly improve the ability to investigate potential fraud.”
Ms. Stead said on Thursday that a “final determination letter” was mailed to Ms. Atchinson earlier in the week outlining Schwab’s decision. Ms. Atchinson said she had not yet received the letter.
Schwab’s “security guarantee,” outlined on its website, says that “Schwab will cover losses in any of your Schwab accounts due to unauthorized activity.” But fine print at the bottom of the page notes that reimbursement “requires your timely reporting of unauthorized activity to Schwab,” and that Schwab “will not be liable for additional or increased losses resulting from a failure to report unauthorized activity in a timely manner.” It notes that more details are available in account agreements.
Notify your bank as soon as possible, said Scott Anchin, senior vice president of strategic initiatives and policy at the independent bankers association.
Banks generally allow at least 30 days and sometimes up to 90 days from the time your statement is made available to you to report suspected check fraud, he said. Check your account agreement.
(The agreement available online for a Schwab One account, which appears to be the kind of account Ms. Atchinson used, notes an even tighter window for reporting check fraud: 10 days. Ms. Stead, however, said the bank’s cutoff is 30 days.)
If you get statements online, the clock starts when the statement posts, even if you haven’t opened it yet. Review statements promptly, Mr. Anchin said, including the check images, because an altered recipient isn’t always obvious from a one-line entry on a statement. Banks typically make check images available online or by request.
Will I get my money back?
Sorting out which bank is liable can be “quite time consuming,” Mr. Anchin said. It may depend on details of the incident, like what sort of alterations were made to the check. “There’s a lot that goes on behind the scenes,” he said, but typically, “the customer’s bank wants to make them whole.”
How can I avoid check fraud?
Try to break the check-mailing habit. “No one should ever mail a check,” Mr. Rust said.
If you must write a check, he said, try to deliver it in person or take it inside a post office to mail rather than relying on your own mailbox or public drop boxes.
The American Bankers Association recommends using permanent “gel” ink pens when you do write checks to reduce the risk of tampering. Promptly review your bank statements — including online check images — for anything that looks suspicious. And if you don’t already, consider using your bank’s online bill payment servi
All states now offer some type of electronic payment option for paying taxes, so look into using your state’s system if you owe money at tax time.
Are efforts underway to eliminate paper checks?
The federal government has been moving away from paper checksfor things like benefit payments and income tax refunds, saying digital payment methods are more secure. But any effort to do away with all paper checks is likely to be contentious.
The Federal Reserve system, which acts as a central clearinghouse and electronically processes millions of checks daily, recently sought public input on potential changes to its check services.
More than 300 people and groups responded, many of them representatives of banks serving rural and agricultural communities where paper checks remain important. The chief executive of PriorityOne Bank, for instance, a community bank based in Magee, Miss., said in a comment letter that the bank served many low- and moderate-income rural communities with limited internet access. So online payments aren’t a reliable option, particularly for older residents who aren’t comfortable with digital banking.