My boss just showed me a print out of a check he wrote for $5.00 to someone who came collecting at his door in flatbush. He had left the to field blank. The check was deposited without the guy either filling out or endorsing the check.
The scary thing is that the guy wrote fifty over the five, and turned the 5.00 in the numerical box into a 50.00. If you look closely at the "fifty" you can see the "e" from the five. Becuase of my boss's handwriting the "5" in 5.00 was very narrow, so it was easy to turn it into the left part of a "0" and there was enough room to add another 5 next to it.
He found 2 checks that this happened on. It's scary thinking about how many other times this has happened, how many other people this happened to or will happen to.
It's not so simple to go to chase and tell them because if the guy is constantly doing this (and did not use a no id grocery or check cashing place) this can lead to prison.
Regardless, just be careful to write clearly on checks when your giving it to someone you may not fully trust.
