EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) -- According to the FBI, scammers are taking advantage of technological innovations and fine tuning their methods to be more successful in manipulating unsuspecting victims. Scammers have become very good at impersonating legitimate organizations with fewer grammatical errors and other well-known red flags published by law enforcement and private entities such as Better Business Bureau and Federal Trade Commission, according to the FBI.
Scammers have taken check washing to a new level called “check cooking” or “check baking”. It’s much more lucrative, efficient, and allows them to easily manufacture dozens of checks and deposit them into numerous drop accounts. A scammer just needs to take a digital photo of a stolen check and then use commercially available software to alter it to make counterfeit checks. They will then create several checks with small amounts to remain undetected. By the time it’s noticed, the scammer could have made away with thousands of dollars.