Illinois couple loses $11,000 in check washing scheme they traced to local post office
By Marissa Sulek
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LOMBARD, Illinois (WBBM) — A Lombard couple is out thousands of dollars after they wrote two checks, not even close to that amount.
They said they’re victims of a check washing scheme, and believe it is taking place at their local post office.
Therese Scarlati collected during her own investigation, collecting every sheet of paper, starting with those two checks.
Therese sent a $165 check to her insurance company. Her husband wrote this $64 check for the water bill — both mailed on the same day, yet somehow the amounts were both changed.
Her husband’s was cashed for $5,700 in storage fees, while Therese’s check was cashed for $5,200 for a snow plow rental.
“Well, I don’t think there has been enough snow for $5,200!” she said.
In total, they could be out $11,000. But both checks were made out to the same unknown name — Q’shawn Jackson.
Therese said she got a call from Bank of America flagging her check for fraud.
“Right away I knew, no, I did not write that,” she said.
Therese was told that a person with the Bank of America mobile app was trying to cash the washed checks.
“I’ve been in electronic security for over 20-some years,” she said.
And with her background, she started to backtrack, starting with her mailman.
“He gave us some awareness of the post office issues,” she said.
Therese said she came to the Lombard post office to do her own investigation and asked to see the back room. She said when she got there, she was taken by surprise.
“There was no cameras in the back area to watch how they are handling in the back,” she said.
Therese also wrote a post on Facebook, and dozens commented, saying they had similar issues at the Lombard post office in the last few months.
She is confident she will get the money back since it’s federally insured. As for Q’shawn Jackson, she’s skeptical.
“I don’t think they’ll catch him. I think it’s a bigger ring and there’s a lot more to it,” she said.
Therese hopes her situation will make others in the area aware, and from now on, she plans to write checks with permanent ink so it doesn’t happen again.
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