Cape Coral woman’s bank account drained after check is swiped from the mail

A Cape Coral woman says someone wiped out her checking account. She thinks, somehow someone got a hold of a check she mailed and doctored it.

Kathleen Reedenhauer woke up Thursday morning to an alert from her bank saying, “It was a shock this morning. I’m still kind of jittery about it.”

And it didn’t take long for her to see what happened.

“None of that is my handwriting or signature. And how they even got it out of the mailbox, I don’t know,” Reedenhauer said.

She says someone forged her signature on a check she sent in the mail, “I started to look and they had been presented a $3,200 check, which I did not write out.”

Another person reported to police the same thing happened to them.

Identity theft expert Carrie Kerskie says the biggest risk is that you’re putting your routing and account number for your bank account in an envelope, in the mail, and it’s sitting around for anyone to have access to.

Kerskie recommends buying checks that leave a mark if someone tries to change it.

You can also pay for the post office to track your check when you put it in the mail.

Reedenhauer’s advice, “Just make sure if you do online banking, make sure you check your account every single day.”

The good news is you are probably protected from loss from your checking account if someone does get ahold of your checks.

Redeenhauer says the bank is working to get her money back into her account as quickly as possible.