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Counterfeit and Raised Postal Money
Orders
By Richard P. Weiss
Retail Associate, Fox Chase Station
Founder/Writer, Postal991.com
Counterfeit postal money orders
continue to circulate, perpetuating
havoc and hardship on unsuspecting
victims. Con artists who, in many
cases, reside overseas contact their
victims via Internet chat rooms or
other online meeting sites. They
convince their targets that they have
encountered problems cashing postal
money orders in their country (Nigeria
to a large extent) and need help to
cash them. These thieves mail
counterfeit money orders to their
victims, telling them that they will
share some of this money after the
victims deposit the orders into their
personal bank accounts and then wire
most of the money back to the sender.
In some cases, the con artists pose as
"businesses" offering opportunities
for those needing to work from home.
Within a week after recipients deposit
the money orders, their banks contact
them to let them know that the money
orders were counterfeit. The banks
hold the depositors accountable and
withdraw funds from their accounts to
cover the amounts of the bogus money
orders, sometimes amounting to
thousands of dollars. Those who are
fortunate enough to bring these
worthless documents to their local
Post Offices before wiring money to
the sender find out that they were
about to fall off a financial cliff.
Anyone accepting postal money
orders, including postal personnel,
bank tellers, and those receiving
payment via postal money orders for
products or services need to know how
to identify a counterfeit money order.
A genuine postal money order contains
a repeating watermark of Benjamin
Franklin that passes through an open
oval area located on the left-hand
side of the order. It also includes a
security thread with the capital
letters "USPS" running both forward
and backward that becomes visible when
the money order is held up to a light.
On the newer series of money orders,
these security strips appear as a
shiny metallic silver, interweaving in
and out of the paper. Held up to a
light, the strip is solid, running
from the top to the bottom of the
money order. Under the same light, the
same strip on a counterfeit will
appear dotted because it is painted on
the surface. On the older series, the
thread will appear black with white
lettering. On the front of the money
order, denomination amounts appear in
two separate locations. Serial numbers
on sequentially printed orders
increase in numeric order from 00 to
99, independent of the last digit
which also increases from 0 to 8, and
cycles back again to 0. Most
counterfeiters miss this detail and
print sequential serial numbers using
the very last two digits.
Discoloration of the denomination
amount indicates erasure and
alteration, flagging the likelihood of
fraud. The maximum value for a
domestic postal money order is $1,000
($700 for an international money
order).
In most cases, a
counterfeit money order lacks either
the watermark or the security thread
found in a real document. However,
there is a type of counterfeit money
order that contains all of the
security features of "real" ones,
known as "raised" money orders. These
fraudulent documents were originally
authentic money orders that were
printed on genuine postal stock by the
Postal Service. They were issued for
one amount but later altered to
falsely indicate a higher amount. A
real $10 money order, for example, was
found to be altered, possibly
chemically, to appear to be an $810
money order. These altered versions
have become an increasing problem for
the Postal Service since they contain
the Benjamin Franklin Watermark,
security threads, and other features
that indicate a genuine article.
Alterations are sometimes so
professionally engineered that the
changes do not cause discoloration
around the denomination amounts. To
make matters worse, serial numbers on
these orders do not generally match
those published in the "bad Domestic
Money Order" list of the Postal
Bulletin because counterfeiters
obviously do not report money order
serial numbers as "lost or stolen"
after they have altered the
denomination amounts on these
documents.
In addition to
matching serial numbers to the
fraudulent money order listing
contained in the bi-weekly Postal
Bulletin, Retail Associates need to
make sure that the spelled out
denomination amount printed on a
customer’s money order does not begin
more than a couple of millimeters to
the left of the word "amount:." If the
spelled out amount begins, for
example, almost an inch to the left of
"amount:" this clearly indicates that
someone has added additional lettering
to change the designated amount of the
document. Spelled out amounts on
fraudulently altered (raised) money
orders begin to the left of the word
amount because it's much more
difficult for the counterfeiter to
erase and reprint the entire line of
text in order to change the designated
amount.
Postal personnel and
others accepting postal money orders
need to take all steps needed to
verify the validity of these
documents. They need to scrutinize any
differences in either the font size or
the type of lettering used in the
spelled out amount, as added text may
not match the exact style of the
original text.
Additional steps
in analyzing postal money orders could
prevent a great deal of revenue loss
for the Postal Service and help to
reduce the likelihood of a scam
perpetrated upon an unsuspecting
victim.
Anyone who confirms
that they have received a counterfeit
postal money order should immediately
contact their local U.S. Postal
Inspection Service™ office or call the
fraud hotline, Monday-Friday at
1-800-372-8347. |
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