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A relatively new and surprisingly innovative scam targeting residences has been discovered where thieves steal checks, then blot out the pay to the order of line with ink remover. This allows them to fill in the line with whatever name they want and makes it fairly difficult to trace down the culprit, police say. 

The Berkeley Police Department was first made aware of this scam approximately a month ago and has notified area neighborhood associations to make their members aware. The police say that bills should and checks should not be left in mailboxes where thieves may get at them, and if anything unusual is noticed they should notify the authorities as well as their bank immediately. 

Many residents, however, remain unaware of the potential threat. 

Berkeley resident Charles Fountain, who is not a member of any neighborhood association said he had not heard of any such scam.  

“I haven’t heard about it, but I don’t leave checks out in the mailbox anyway,” Fountain said.  

The ink remover is typically bought online but is also available at specialty arts and crafts stores. 

Berkeley retailers Decorated Paper and Amsterdam Art say the supplies are often bought for people who want to remove resistant ink from surfaces. They were unaware of the scam as well. They have not noticed any pick up in the purchase of the ink, a spokes people from both retailers said. 

A quick Internet search, however, revealed several places where the ink remover could be purchased.  

FirstGov for Consumers, a federal advocacy group with a we site that offers information about various potential threats, have already looked into these scams and say they do not think it is as new as it appears. 

“The ink remover has been on the market at specialty stores for some time now,” said James Dell of the Consumer Sentinel. “It’s really a natural adjunct to identity theft which is rampant as you know on the Internet.” 

The Identity Theft Data Clearinghouse, a federal government database for tracking, says complaints have been lodged there about lost or stolen checks that have come back to account holders chased. 

They also stated that perhaps not so many people know about the potential threat is because many of these types of crimes increase in prevalence with notoriety. 

“Sometimes news stories and alerts and warnings succeed more in turning lights on the mind’s of criminals then helping the potential victims,” Dell said. “It’s a balancing game. When the complaints get to a certain level, then it’s time to alert consumers and quick.” 

The Consumer Sentinel now contains more than 100,000 complaints. The Clearinghouse information provides law enforcement agencies with a broad range of complaints, allowing them to spot patterns of illegal activity. 

Another purposed of The Clearinghouse is to enable policy makers and to get a sense of the extent of the types of theft that is taking place. 

Contact reporter: 

devona@berkeleydailyplanet.net