Woman Claims Scammers Stole A Check She Mailed At The Post Office
CHICAGO (CBS) -- A check for cable ended up wiping out a Chicago woman's bank account, and the scammers simply used Wite-Out.
Diana Vulic goes to the Northtown post office either inside or to the box in front to send important documents and bills. It brings her peace of mind, but she has found herself in an ordeal that has been anything but peaceful.
"I'm out $8,000," Vulic said. "I just kind of freaked out. My family thought I was having a heart attack."
Vulic woke up to a U.S. Bank alert. She was $2,300 overdrawn.
"You hear about things going on every day, so I trust the box in front of the post office," she said.
Vulic said her ordeal started in April. She tried mailing checks for bills she owed, like the $301.37 to Comcast.
"Open the thing, they fall down, I close it, and I walk away. And I'm like, my bills are paid," she said.
But weeks go by, and Comcast hits her with late fees. They never got check number 5115, clearly written out in Vulic's ledger with her comcast account number in the memo line.
"Those companies never got those checks, and I assumed they were lost in the mail" she said.
But that check number reappeared Wednesday with some major noticeable changes.
"They were whited out and something was written over," she said.
The new total was nearly $8,000. The check was made out to Justin Quintrell Steele, not Comcast.
"I do not know a Justin," Vulic said.
The date also looks altered. Vulic suspects fraud.
"I'm convinced 100% that this is the same check I put in the mailbox April 4, made out to Comcast for $301," she said.
But the scammer who took the check to an ATM in Minnesota didn't bother to take out her Comcast account number or her actual signature.
"I feel violated," she said. "I can't understand at this time we are going through that people are out there doing this to innocent people."
It is unclear what happened to the check, but Vulic was able to get her money back from the bank.
The United State Postal Service is investigating and advises dropping off your mail before the last pickup of the day, handing your letter to your mail carrier or actually going inside the post office.