Mail Fraud and Rotten Fish
“But if you wanna leave, take good care
Hope you make a lot of nice friends out there
But just remember there's a lot of bad and beware
Beware
[Chorus]
Oh, baby, baby, it's a wild world”
—Wild World, by Cat Stevens
Warning.; Danger Robinson Family – I am about to serve up a big plate of cynicism.
In late 2024, I wrote two personal checks to pay some small bills and put them in my home US mailbox. I was aware that there had been some mail theft in my neighborhood, so shame on me for not taking better precautions. Neither check reached their recipient. Both checks were apparently stolen from my mailbox and one of them was “washed” and a new payee was added along with the new sum of almost $10,000.
I learned about the theft and fraud only after routinely examining my checking account statement where I saw a check to a person I did not recognize. I reported the fraudulent check to the bank and thereafter had to monitor the account daily until all outstanding checks cleared. I also had to establish new autopayments from another account and eventually close my original checking account dating back to 1988. I messed up the new autopayments by inputting the wrong account number in over 20 different accounts, and had to pay various penalties, and was initially banned from further use of autopay by two public utilities. All told I estimated at the time I spent 26 hours dealing with the theft and its aftermath. There is no way to sugar coat it – I was and still am pissed off at the perpetrator.
I reported the crime to the to the Montgomery, MD Police, met with them, but then was told the United States Postal Service (“USPS”) had exclusive jurisdiction and the County was not going to investigate further.
So back in 2024 I filed a complaint with USPS. To my relief, an outside USPS contractor promptly investigated my complaint, and we had a couple of responsive exchanges of email. That was good. I found the woman who cashed the fraudulent check on the internet and sent the USPS contractor two pictures of her and contact information including her employer and home address. I told the consultant I wanted to see some action and would cooperate in every way possible. But then things got quiet.
Eventually, I was put in touch with a supervisory postal inspector. He assured me that the mail theft and check washing scheme was very complex and that the dupes who cash the checks may not have any knowledge they are furthering a fraudulent scheme. I was told this is happening all over the country. The USPS respectfully asked me to be patient since these financial frauds take time to investigate.
For the moment I have buttoned up my inner Charles Bronson and will trust the Postal Inspectors to do their job.
But I remain uneasy. Lately, I have dealt with too many frauds. I have timely uncovered perhaps four credit card frauds over the years, And I had significant US Savings Bond funds stolen in what was likely an inside bank job. Almost daily I am inundated by email scams. I recently had to deal with a scam artist who squatted in my West Coast condominium. And then there was the car rental company this year that changed my $600 weekly car rental rate to $2,200 or so explaining that higher charge was the new “rack rate” applicable as of when the car was returned. And on that basis AMEX then denied my credit card appeal related to the improper credit card charge. No one seemed to care what the rate was in the contract. And there were also quite a few “business” frauds arising from what are blue chip US corporations. See https://www.awrcounsel.com/blog/2026/3/24/gh48hs7l2xgyu2z0xs71auvlw59o5c.
Each time above, I was competent enough to catch the fraudster and persistent enough to get my monies back. It helps to be a lawyer. But obviously, not every citizen has those skills and persistence, or there would not be this kind of endemic fraud. And, of course, there are far worst crimes than bank or credit card fraud. In the Game Monopoly, it gets you $200.
The cynic in me thinks that the repetitive frauds signify something worse is a foot. Sadly, they color my view of the world. I will not be the first person to tell you this society has a crime/corruption problem. There is street crime, of course, but the crime statistics show that to be declining overall over time. Probably more important is the financial corruption that is so prevalent. Indeed, too many of our largest corporations have business models built on larceny. The principal purpose of the internet is commerce first, but larceny and fraud second. Never has caveat emptor been so important. Americans are being divided into thieves and dupes. There is a rot at the national core.
OMG, the President of the US thinks it is alright to negotiate a settlement deal with himself both dropping all tax fraud charges and setting up an “Anti-Weaponization” $1.7 billion slush fund to pay “reparations” to himself , his friends, and the January 6th criminals. And I just read that the total global value of cryptocurrency and tokens is approximately $2,.767 trillion. That is the Mother of All Frauds. No surprise, the President has his fingers in that till. A fish rots at the head, as the saying goes.