CHESTERFIELD COUNTY, Va. – When Wanda Bass looked at her bank statement last month, she discovered that a $4,600 tax payment intended for the U.S. Treasury had ended up in someone else’s hands.
“There was a dollar amount written out in numbers, and then when you wrote out the amount of the check, no matter what it was, that amount was different,” Bass said. “There were so many red flags on this particular check.”
Bass said she personally dropped off the check at her local post office on Sycamore Square in Midlothian, something she has done for more than two decades.
She did not file any report through the USPS because she was unsure if her claim was sufficiently substantiated to do so.
“I have no proof that it was USPS. I mean, everyone seems to think that was the case, so I have no proof,” Bass said.
Although she filed a report with the Chesterfield Police Department, because the USPS is a federal agency, the investigation at the local level was limited.
“They said that was the end of their jurisdiction, and when I spoke to a detective the next day, he said it was because it was a mobile deposit,” Bass said. “Because they could tell because it was deposited through a mobile transaction, there wasn’t much they could do to investigate.”
Wendy Bass
Sergeant William Rosser of Chesterfield Police’s Investigation Division said his team had noticed an increase in fraud cases.
“They occur in enormous numbers, much more frequently than we would like to see,” Rosser said.
Fraud cases often take a long time to process and when the perpetrators are found, they sometimes have to be tracked down on the other side of the country.
“A lot of the crimes that occur may be mail theft here, but the actual crime occurred here in, say, Illinois, Wisconsin or Colorado,” Rosser said. “It’s not as simple as us just calling. Right? We’re the police, we have to follow laws, procedures and subpoenas, that puts a lot of hurdles for us to get information to detect fraud, right?”
The USPS Office of the Inspector General is investigating the claim, but so far Bass has not gotten her money back.
She also filed a complaint with her bank, stating that she was unaware of their fee-based fraud protection services.
According to a letter from Atlantic Union Bank to Bass, customers are responsible for any fraudulent or unauthorized transactions on their account unless the bank “acted in bad faith” or its “negligence contributed to the loss.”
On Tuesday, CBS6 reached out to Atlantic Union Bank and asked for further clarification on its policies and what the bank does to prevent fraud. As of Wednesday afternoon, we had not received a response.
Sergeant Rosser recommends everyone read their bank’s fine print and ask about protection plans, for both personal and business accounts.
“Nobody really pays attention to it until you’re affected, right? It’s your victim, right? So you kind of close the door after the horse has dismounted,” Rosser said. “But sit down and talk to your bank representatives and see what security they offer. If this happens to me, what happens on my side? Do I get my money back?”
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The bank informed her that she had attempted to recover funds from the bank that had been used in the check laundering case, but that bank had advised that “no funds were available” for a refund.
“There just has to be some kind of reform and ways to stop this. You know, people have to have confidence,” Bass said.
Bass said she was unaware of her bank’s fraud protection services for business accounts.
On Tuesday, CBS 6 reached out to Atlantic Union Bank and asked for further clarification on its policies and what the bank does to prevent fraud. As of Wednesday afternoon, we had not received a response.
Sergeant Rosser recommends everyone read their bank’s fine print and ask about protection plans, for both personal and business accounts.
“Nobody really pays attention to it until you’re affected, right? It’s your victim, right? So you kind of close the door after the horse has dismounted,” Rosser said. “But sit down and talk to your bank representatives and see what security they offer. If this happens to me, what happens on my side? Do I get my money back?”
According to the USPS OIG, the quickest way to file a report is to file a hotline complaint. You can do so here.
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