A Tennessee county mailed a check for $881.08. By the time the payment was altered, officials said, it had become a $20,881.08 loss.
Williamson County commissioners voted this week to write off more than $20,000 in taxpayer money after a check-washing scam that county officials said they likely will not recover, according to NewsChannel 5.
The original check was mailed by the county to pay an expense, Budget and Finance Director Phoebe Reilly told commissioners. She said it was intercepted somewhere between the county’s mailbox and the vendor’s mailbox.
Reilly said the check was washed and changed from $881.08 to $20,881.08, the station reported. Commissioners approved a resolution to remove the loss from the county’s books after officials said the money was unlikely to be recovered.
The Check Was Traced to a Florida Identity-Theft Victim
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County documents said the incident happened in 2024, according to NewsChannel 5. The Williamson County Sheriff’s Office investigated the altered check and traced it to a woman in Florida.
Investigators later determined the Florida woman was also a victim of identity theft, the station reported. Reilly told commissioners she had been told there was little to no chance the county would recover the money because investigators could not identify the person responsible.
Commissioner Mary Smith asked during the meeting whether anyone had been held accountable. NewsChannel 5 reported that no one has been held accountable in the case.
The Scam Hit Taxpayer Money
The money came from county accounts, so commissioners had to formally write off the loss after officials said it was unlikely to be recovered. The check had started as a routine county payment, but the altered amount left taxpayers absorbing the loss.
Check washing starts with a physical check, but the damage happens when the payee, amount, or both are changed before the check is deposited. The U.S. Postal Inspection Service says check-washing scams involve changing payee names and often dollar amounts on checks before fraudulently depositing them.
The Postal Inspection Service says some checks are stolen from mailboxes and washed with chemicals to remove ink. The FBI has also warned that mail-theft-related check fraud can involve washing checks, altering the original payee and amount, or creating counterfeit versions of stolen checks.
Williamson County Had Already Warned Residents About Washed Checks
The county loss was not the only check-washing concern reported in Williamson County this year. In February, the Williamson County Sheriff’s Office warned residents after receiving two reports involving washed checks, according to Williamson Source.
One resident had mailed a check for more than $3,000 to pay property taxes, but the check was never received, the sheriff’s office said in that earlier warning. Investigators said it had been intercepted, chemically altered, and made payable to someone else.
A second resident reported a check altered to more than $8,000, with both the payee name and amount changed, according to the same warning. The sheriff’s office urged residents to take checks directly inside a post office when possible, avoid leaving outgoing checks in residential mailboxes overnight, use black gel ink, and monitor bank accounts for suspicious activity.
The County Added Positive Pay After the Loss
NewsChannel 5 reported that Williamson County has since started using positive pay, a banking safeguard that compares checks and payments against an approved list before they clear.
Reilly said her office also added internal safeguards, staff training, and extra double-checks after meeting with the bank. Former FBI agent Scott Augenbaum told the station that check washing is a decades-old crime, but positive pay can help agencies by matching payments to known participants before money leaves an account.