I had yet another check for a credit card disappear between my mailbox and the credit card company.
I have had the same thing happen with mortgage checks and credit card payments several times over the past year, costing me stop payment charges at my bank and credit card late fees.
Now I always take my mortgage checks and put them in the mail slot inside the post office every month, and I was doing that with credit card payments, but got out of the habit with my credit cards because anything I put on them I pay off as soon as possible.
The first time it happened, besides calling the creditor and request they open an investigation, and going to my bank, requesting a stop payment and that they flag and investigate any attempt to access my account using that check, I went to the post office and talked to the postmaster. He told me if I had sent it certified I could have it traced, but otherwise they could not. He also said that fewer investigations of theft or fraud were pursued than they used to (probably since that idiot dejoy took over).
He said the safest thing to do is to take the mail to the post office and put it in the slot inside, and don't use the their outside drop box in front of the post office (and what he implied is that his mail carriers can't be trusted!). I haven't bothered to go there to complain anymore.
When I went to my bank today, the personal banker didn't seem to care, other than submitting a stop payment, so I complained, asked to speak to the manager, who had been the personal banker I had dealt with on my previous visits, and had told me in the past that they would flag and investigate any attempts to access my account using the check. However today, she said a stop payment is all they can do, and when I reminded her what she had told me before, she called to see what the bank does if someone who has stolen a check, and a stop payment is on it, she was told they no longer get any information about who tried to cash it, not even what bank submitted the check to my bank, they just refuse the transaction.
When she told me that I asked her, doesn't anyone care about fraud anymore? I went on a bit of a tirade about what's happening at the federal level, specifically the firing of personnel and trying to shut down any agency charged with investigating fraud.
I am beginning to think that committing fraud might be the way to go to make extra money, since the banks and the feds (and republicans) don't seem to care about investigating it anymore. I am kidding, of course,
Seriously, with a federal government (with republicans in charge) that no longer cares about fraud, in fact is committing it at the fastest rate ever in our history, and does not believe in law and order, anyone who is wronged by any government official, or any company, or any individual, who does not have the resources to hire a lawyer, and pay them enough money to fight to a conclusion and win, which is 99% of us, has now no recourse but to take matters into their own hands.
With a lawless federal government, who could blame them? Most people have a conscious, and would not go there, but I fear that those without scruples, or those desperate enough if their freedom or lives are threatened, or if their families are, will deal with a lawless government in a similar, lawless way.
