If You Were Planning To Send Some Money To Loved Ones In El Paso Or Houston, Don't Send A Check This Holiday Season.

Cash is always the best gift to give during the holidays. We're quite sure at this point, you've figured out that there's "cashless" ways to send money through your phone but for the rest of you folks who prefer the "old fashioned" way of sending money to loved ones via paper check, you may want to reconsider doing that this year.

Mail Thefts Are On The Rise According To The U.S. Postal Service.

The USPS earlier this year cautioned that it has seen an increase in attacks on letter carriers and mail fraud incidents, with 305 mail carriers robbed in the first half of fiscal year 2023, on pace to exceed the previous year's 412 robberies according to a report from CBS News.

Fraudsters are targeting mailboxes, either stealing letters directly from residents' homes or from the blue USPS collection boxes, the postal service said.

There's Been Reports Of These Thefts In Texas As Well.

The rise in crime targeting postal carriers and mailboxes heightens the risk that mailed checks could be stolen, as has been documented in incidents across the nation.

In many cases, "check washing" - which involves scammers using chemicals that erase your writing on the check, such as the name of the recipient and the amount of the check, to change the amount- is why their being stolen.

You might be asking "Who Is Still Sending Checks In 2023?"

Check usage is declining, but Americans still wrote 3.4 billion checks in 2022 which still gives criminals plenty of opportunity for fraud.

If you insist (or just don't trust "CashApp" or "ApplePay" or whatever) on sending a check through the mail, go inside your local post office or send it through the mail at your workplace. You can also hand your mail directly to a mail carrier.