🚨 Check Fraud PSA + Link Round-up 🔗
Hi Friends,
I shared this in Friday’s newsletter, but I wanted to be sure to pass it along to you here too.
In case you haven’t read or watched this in the news, fraudsters are plucking checks out of the mail and re-writing them to themselves en masse.
I knew this, but the online system to pay my New York City S-Corp taxes kept glitching, so I only reluctantly put a check in the mail. I even wrapped it in paper so the envelope wasn’t see-through.
(If you’re Gen Z, you’re probably wondering, “What even is a check? Those blue verified badges that social media influencers have?”)
Still, someone saw the addressee and took my $7,200 check, changed a few details, and cashed it to themselves. Now I need to close a checking account I’ve had for decades (they have my address and signature).
Thankfully, because I have a checkbook with carbon copies, sending that helped expedite the fraud review process, and the money has now been refunded by my bank.
A few things I’ve learned:
Do not send any checks in the mail if you can help it, especially for tax time — it’s obvious what’s in those envelopes. Pay via ACH electronically!
If you must send a check, take a photo of it so you have a record if needed. It also helps to have a checkbook with duplicates—my favorite are these Wonder Woman checks that always make me smile.
My bank’s fraud team would only accept this image via fax (“Fax?!” I said incredulously to the customer service agent, “But I haven’t sent one of those in twenty years!”) Thankfully Dropbox offers faxing. Who knew?!
Do not auto-confirm fraud texts from your bank without looking at the scanned image of the check that was actually cashed, even if it’s for the same amount as the one you wrote.
📰 Read more about this in the New York Times’ We can’t stop writing paper checks. Thieves love that. (gift link)
“You can buy checks on the internet for $45, with a perfectly good signature,” said John Ravita, director of business development at SQN Banking Systems, check fraud detection software. “There is one website that offers a money-back guarantee. It’s like Nordstrom.”
Now onto this week’s #PivotList, with bonus goodies over the paywall rainbow at the end :)
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⚙️ Tools
🍎 On the home front: I love Food Huggers! They are reusable, dishwasher-safe silicone “food savers” for fruits and veggies. They even make special ones for avocados. 🥑
📠 On the we still use that front?! As mentioned above, if you ever need to send a fax DropboxFax (formerly HelloFax) is free if you have a Dropbox account.
🎸 On the mind-blowing front: via
’s recent , check out Suno.ai, where you can write a prompt to produce a song with lyrics, musical backing, and vocals—in mere minutes.My dad and I wrote a prompt for, “A broken relationship and an abandoned Nevada gas station, in the style of Paul Simon.”
🎵 It returned Dusty Station Blues. 🤯
This service is not to be confused with Sora, OpenAI’s instant text-to-animation and video generator . . . equally wild:
🍿 Watching
The Accountant on Netflix, starring Ben Affleck: Perfect for tax time 😭
“Not only is this accountant easily able to dig into a company’s books, he’s also an expert assassin, and his new client can use both skills.”
📚Reading
I was fortunate to get an advance copy of Susie Orman Schnall’s novel, Anna Bright Is Hiding Something, and couldn’t put it down! If you enjoyed John Carreyrou’s gripping investigative account of the Theranos fraud, Bad Blood, you’ll have fun with this one too :) From the book description:
The Dropout meets Inventing Anna in this cinematic and page-turning summer read! A ripped-from-the-headlines story set in the glossy offices of Silicon Valley startups and NYC new media, Anna Bright Is Hiding Something explores our fascination with female founders breaking barriers—and sometimes behaving badly in the process.
Anna Bright is committing fraud. But nobody knows it yet. Not the board of her multibillion-dollar company, not her investors, not the public breathlessly anticipating the launch of BrightSpot, and not the media—including Jamie Roman, a hardworking journalist for BusinessBerry. But when Jamie does learn about Anna’s misconduct, she embarks on a bicoastal journey to expose the crimes and make a name for herself as a journalist. It’s not long before Anna learns what the reporter is up to, however—and she’ll do anything to stop Jamie.
Especially now that BrightLife’s IPO is days away.
🎧 Listening
Pair Susie’s novel with Wondery’s The Big Flop podcast episode on Theranos:
And an episode from streaming services’ and fan favorite scandal, Fyrefest:
✍️ Writing
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That’s it for now . . . thank you for reading and listening!
❤️ With Love,
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