I-Team: Stolen Checks on the Dark Web

DAYTON — Selling personal checks on the dark web has been a crime that’s been growing dramatically in recent months.

News Center 7′s John Bedell has been investigating some of these thefts and found out it’s related to organized crime.

Gloria Daniel wrote out a check for her water bill and put it in the mail. Days later, her check was for sale on criminal online marketplaces.

A knock on Daniel’s door, out of the blue, led to an unpleasant surprise.

She replied, “Yep that’s my check, and it was for sales on the dark web.”

Daniel said, “You actually knew about it before I did.”

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Georgia State University Criminologist David Maimon and his team of graduate students at the evidence-based Cybersecurity Research Group found Daniel’s check for sale, along with a host of others from companies, cities, and regular people.

Criminals take pictures, upload them on platforms and offer them for sale. It’s an old crime that has been made new again – stealing checks from the mail.

“It’s not a group of adolescents stealing your mail, we’re talking about organized crime groups who at the end of the day know exactly what they’re doing,” Maimon said.

They are washing the checks, which means changing things like names and dollar amounts. But. Now, they can sell on dark web marketplaces paid in crypto currency.

There’s even a price list. Criminals will charge $120-$150 for personal checks, $250 for business checks and you can get a bulk discount - $80 a check if you buy more than 100.

“We’re talking about 11,000 checks every month we find,” Maimon said.

It all starts with the blue drop boxes belonging to the United States Postal Service. In 2022, WHIO-TV reported three USPS letter carriers were robbed for their arrow keys, one in Washington Township, one in Dayton and another in Trotwood.

Stealing the arrow keys, which are used to open the blue mailboxes means access to huge volumes of mail.

“Once they have the check think about what folks can do with it,” Maimon said.

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What they did in Daniel’s case, was wash the check and quickly cash the fake version, making off with nearly $6,000 by the time her bank contacted her.

“It’s like an invasion of my space and my peace because I’ve had to call social security. I’ve had to call payroll,” Daniel said.

The criminals now have our personal information, can make a fake ID and become Gloria Daniel.

“You become the thief and we see that a lot,” Maimon said.

“It’s nothing I thought would happen otherwise I wouldn’t put a check in there and I won’t put anymore in there,” Daniel said.

News Center 7 does not know how many of the master keys for the blue mailboxes have been stolen because federal auditors found the Postal Service does not even know how many arrow keys are out there in circulation, let alone how many are missing.

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