HOOD RIVER — In July, the Wy’East fire district, serving Odell, Pine Grove and the area east of Hood River in the lower valley, got hit by a check-washing thief. Now protection will cost the district $1,020 a year.
In this type of financial scam, thieves get their hands on a real check, then change the name of the person it’s written to — so they can cash it themselves. They often boost the dollar amount too.
Check washing has been on the rise over the past few years, and last week the U.S. Postal Inspection Service said it recovers at least $1 billion a year in fraudulent checks.
At the Wy’East Rural Fire District board meeting Aug. 14, Chief Greg Borton told the story. In mid-July, a vendor notified the district that it had not received an expected $1,500 check.
Borton learned the check was stolen, and the payee name changed, though in this case the amount was not. District officials don’t know exactly how or where the check was stolen.
“It was whitewashed,” he told the board, using another term for check washing. “It led to the bank freezing all of our accounts. The credit cards … everything. It shut everything down, payroll, everything.”
It took a full month for accounts to be working as they should. Borton said bill payments were “kicked back” and the paycheck for one summer employee was rejected three times.
He described the experience as a “nightmare.”
One option — close all accounts and open a new one — seemed unfeasible. So the district went with another solution, called positive pay, which Borton described as a “triple-check” system.
Promoted as a way to prevent check washing, “positive pay” requires companies to provide detailed lists of all checks issued, which the bank uses to confirm legitimacy before cashing them.
“And if the signatures are not on the checks, if the vendor’s name is not correct — and I mean correct, it can’t be Cascade Fire Equip for equipment, it has to be spelled out,” he said. “And the amount has to match. If not, that check gets a red flag.”
Assistant Chief Dwight Moe said he had experience with the program and found it works well. The service will cost Wy’East Fire District $85 per month.
“It’s worth it,” Borton said.
The district captain who made the police report was scheduled to speak with a grand jury last week.
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Read full notes of the Aug. 14 Wy’East Rural Fire District board meeting by Gorge Documenter Karen Heinemann at columbia-gorge.documenters.org.
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