New York Man Nearly Left Homeless After Thieves Steal His $97,000 Social Security Check

Todd Kahler was astonished and happy when he was finally accepted for Social Security disability benefits after being refused twice and appealing the decision. He’d have enough money to maintain himself because he couldn’t work due to his severe immunocompromised condition. Kahler withdrew from state benefits to protect future eligibility and waited for the Social Security Administration to reimburse her $97,000 back wages. The cheque did not arrive, and he received very unsettling news when he phoned the national Social Security office.

“The guy I spoke with was very beneficial, and he told me somebody had cashed it,” Kahler told MarketWatch. “He told me who cashed it and at what bank. We spoke for forty minutes. How his check was taken is unknown, but Kahler claims he struggled to pay food and rent in the aftermath. After several months of pushing for himself in various ways, including phoning government agencies, making complaints, speaking with the media, and collaborating with legal aid attorneys, the Social Security Administration ultimately intervened to refund the monies. Here’s how widespread mail theft-related check fraud is and how you may protect yourself to avoid it.

A Developing problem:

Unfortunately, not everyone who has their checks stolen and cashed is as fortunate or tenacious as Kahler, and the number of victims of this financial crime has climbed in recent years. According to the MarketWatch story, a Social Security representative informed Kahler and his attorneys that similar thefts had occurred. “It’s exploded,” Carla Sanchez-Adams, a National Consumer Law Center senior attorney, told MarketWatch. “It’s something that people are often surprised by because they’re like, who still pays by check?”

How are checks stolen?

With so many checks falling into the wrong hands, the fundamental question is how this occurs. The difficulty is that fraudsters utilize a variety of ways, making it difficult to put a halt to their illicit activities. In certain situations, postal workers are to blame, such as in one operation where two former mail workers collaborated to steal more than $4 million in checks issued by the US Treasury Department. In other cases, criminals may rob postal workers to obtain the keys that access collection boxes, or postal workers may sell these keys on the black market.

How can you protect yourself from check fraud?

Check fraud can be difficult to combat since it occurs before or after a check is sent. One of the most effective solutions is limiting the number of inspections you perform. Criminals cannot intercept checks that have not been sent or received . So, set up direct deposit with Social Security, the IRS, your work, and anybody else who provides the service, and pay as many of your bills online as possible  . If you’re writing a check, use a black gel pen to make it more challenging to modify, and if you’re mailing it, use a secure box like those inside the post office rather than simply dropping it in a box outside.

If a check you wrote goes gone, notify your bank and cancel it. If you realize it has been cashed, notify your bank and the police immediately. If you anticipate payment via check, you should keep track of when it is expected to arrive and inform the sender promptly if it is delayed. This might allow them to halt payment swiftly if they suspect the cheque has slipped into the wrong hands. Following these precautions may hopefully prevent you from being a victim of this expanding criminal trend. If you become a victim, becoming assertive and fighting back, as Kahler did, may be your best and only choice for recovering assets unlawfully taken from you.