Have you ever heard of Flagging?

You may want to think twice the next time you put a check in the mail to pay your bills.  Flagging is a trend that we have started to see in Bellevue.  We have had a couple of people report that they had put a check in the mail to pay a bill and it was cashed by an unknown party in a different amount.  The individual who got caught told the officer that he drove down the street looking for mailboxes with the flag up. He would go through the mail looking for a bill and would take the check out.  He was then able to clean the ink off with rubbing alcohol and put his name on the check and in these cases changed the amount as well. 

Keep this in mind if you have a traditional mail box and you still pay your bills by mail. If you do you may want to go the extra step and take your mail to the post office.  This is just another thing to be aware of.  If you see someone other than the mail carrier in your neighbor’s mail box give us a call. They are probably up to no good.