Spike in checks stolen, ‘washed’ from USPS in Hilton Head area. Over $60K targeted
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The Grift List
South Carolina has the seventh-highest rate of fraud cases in the U.S., and the state’s relatively high median age leaves residents especially vulnerable to scammers’ tactics. National data shows older adults are disproportionately affected by such crimes.
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Ten days after mailing a $1,640 check through the U.S. Postal Service, a Hilton Head couple found the sum had been “mobile deposited” into the bank account of a man they didn’t know.
Over the next two months, the couple caught two more instances of criminals trying to drain their wallets via fraudulent checks. But the transfers’ check numbers didn’t line up — one belonged to a check still sitting in the wife’s checkbook, she told police. The other number didn’t even exist in her registry.
Sheriff’s deputies believed the fraudsters stole the first check from the mail and used it as a “template” to make copies, then attempted to cash the fake checks into their own accounts.
Investigators were unsure how and when the check was intercepted. The couple’s lost money, totaling over $6,000, would be reimbursed by their bank, according to an incident report from the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office.
It’s far from an isolated incident: Checks sent through the mail in the Hilton Head area are increasingly falling into the hands of criminals who “wash” the checks with fraudulent recipients and, occasionally, increased dollar amounts.
Police across Beaufort County reported at least 13 such incidents since the beginning of March, representing over $60,000 in attempted theft.
Many victims of check fraud can secure reimbursements with their bank if they catch on quickly enough, police say, but any stolen check brings the risk of further identity fraud.
“What’s the check have? It’s got your account number, your routing number and all your personal information,” said Lt. Calendine of the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office, who specializes in investigating local scams and financial fraud. “So when the bad guys intercept that check, now you have to get a new account number; you have to change all your stuff.”
The Sheriff’s Office cautions residents against mailing cash or gift cards, Calendine said, “because that’s stuff you can’t get back.” Permanently losing funds is less likely when sending checks through the mail, often because banks can automatically flag washed checks, but it’s not without its risks.
Calendine added that a smaller subset of Beaufort County residents, usually children, have been targeted in what is essentially a scheme to launder fraudulent checks. Often framed as a fake prize won through social media apps like TikTok and Snapchat, victims receive money through checks and are asked to send a portion of the money to another source through CashApp or Apple Pay.
How is the mail stolen?
It’s often difficult to pinpoint when and where these checks were intercepted, Calendine said — whether they were stolen straight from a mailbox, taken later on in a mailing route or even nabbed by a postal worker.
Criminals can tell if a piece of mail contains a check by its shape and weight or by pressing a flashlight to the outside of an envelope, Calendine said. Sending mail through a USPS pickup box or in-person at the Post Office is safer than using one’s mailbox, he added.
“If you are going to send checks out, try to use those envelopes that have the (black security tint) where you can’t tell what’s inside,” Calendine said. “If possible, take it inside the Post Office and put it in the inside box. The blue boxes are secure, but unfortunately, they’ve been broken into in the past.”
Check thievery could also be an inside job: A former carrier at Hilton Head’s north-end Post Office was convicted of mail theft in June 2024 following months of complaints of cash, checks and gift cards going missing from the mail.
A spokesperson with the USPS Office of Inspector General said in an email Tuesday that the agency “does not confirm or refute” information on possible mail theft investigations unless it becomes a matter of public record. Residents can report lost or stolen mail through the OIG’s website.
List of check fraud incidents in Hilton Head area
March 4: A man told Bluffton police a check he mailed had seemingly been intercepted and altered by an unknown suspect, who cashed it in for $4,872.
March 6: The owner of a prominent Bluffton law group told officers he had sent a $6,142 check to a commercial development group in Pooler in late February. A few weeks later, he discovered the check had been cashed in the same amount to a man from Virginia.
March 17: A Sun City man’s check for $2,121 addressed to his daughter-in-law was “stolen, washed and rewritten” to an unknown man, he told deputies from the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office. The check reportedly went into the suspect’s account about 2 weeks after he mailed it through USPS.
March 26: An Okatie resident told deputies she mailed a check to the Beaufort County Treasurer through her mailbox earlier that month, but noticed about two weeks later that a “large amount of money” was missing from her Wells Fargo bank account. The washed check was addressed to a name she did not recognize and included a forged version of her husband’s signature, the police report said.
March 28: After mailing a $155 check for a life insurance bill via the Hilton Head Post Office on Arrow Road, an Indigo Run man was informed his payment never arrived. He received a photo of the washed check, whose dollar amount had soared to $9,552 made out to an unknown suspect. “The only thing on there that was the same was his signature,” he told Beaufort County police.
March 31: An employee of the Sun City property owners association said his check for $2,500 made out to a local restaurant group had been fraudulently cashed by a resident of Jacksonville, Florida. Because his bank flagged the transaction as fraud, the POA did not lose any money.
March 31: A check made out to a local lawn care company and mailed via an east-end Post Office box on Hilton Head was fraudulently rewritten and cashed by another person, a resident told police.
April 7: A resident of Lady’s Island never received a sticker after sending a $316 check to pay her vehicle tax. After contacting her bank, she learned the check had been “completely rewritten” and cashed in the sum of $6,619. The money was later reimbursed, she told police.
April 7: A man in Sea Pines Plantation told deputies that two checks totaling over $7,800 had cleared from his account a few days prior — but he didn’t remember writing either of them. Both checks were not in his handwriting and were addressed to a person he didn’t know, according to a Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office incident report.
April 9: A Bluffton-area heating and air company sent a $383 check that was later washed into $1301 and cashed into the account of a stranger with a New York City address, a co-owner told police.
April 11: A couple in Hilton Head Plantation reported their check had been washed with the dollar amount increased after they placed it in their mailbox to make an insurance payment.
April 12: About 3 weeks after mailing a $132 check to Beaufort Memorial Hospital for payment, a woman told police the amount had been changed to $4,020 and cashed in a stranger’s name at a local Regions bank.
This story was originally published April 16, 2025 at 5:00 AM.
