I own a small business have a UPS mailbox where I receive some of my checks for clients that wont pay online. This year, 4 of my checks(totaling 12k) were cashed(I received the check images from the customer when I was following up for the payment) without endorsement in a JPM chase bank account. I do not have a JPC account. I have asked the clients to cancel the check and issue me a new payment. One client came back today that their bank said they cant do anything and that I have to solve this with JPC. JPC says they cant disclose their client account details.
I have since asked all clients to either pay online or send a check to my office address. When the first check hit, I thought it was a simple mistake by UPS but now it seems more malicious
What are my options? Do I call the cops and meet them at the UPS store? Am a bit lost here of what my options are
If you must accept checks can you at least move to an ach system where you send a link for them to enter their own banking information? This will eliminate the need to mail a physical check.
I was on the other side of one of these situations. I think you are letting yourself get pushed around. This should be on your client to resolve. They are responsible to get your payment into your hands. The fraud was against them, not you.
We mailed out a payment to a vendor that was intercepted, altered and cashed. And then the thief duplicated the check and cashed it two more times with different fictitious names.
As the writer of the check, we went to our bank (also JP Morgan Chase) and told them of the fraud. We also made a police report. The bank made us whole for the missing funds (around $5K).
For companies that write a lot of checks, JPM Chase has a program called Positive Pay which helps prevent check fraud. When you write a check, you go to your account online and list the check number, amount and payee. When a check is presented at the bank, the bank then checks against your list. If there’s a mismatch you get a notification and you have about a half a day to either approve or deny the check. It’s a little more work, but it resolved our problem. Chase doesn’t charge us anything to use Positive Pay.
Yes, my checks payable are being stolen and cashed by thieves.
Might be a good idea to take a new PO box at a US Post office run by US Postal Workers.
You are a victim of grand theft at this point. Yes. Call the cops and have them meet you at the UPS store. You will never resolve or stop this from happening without law enforcement.
You don’t know where the checks are going missing from. It could be your mailbox, it could be the client’s mailbox, it could be in between, it could be they never sent it and they cashed it themselves.
The only one who can file a fraud claim with their bank about this is the client. Their money being stolen is their problem.
This is a delinquent aged receivable for you. You can press for payment, try to work with them, or write it off. I would not suggest the latter though, because they could still get their money back from the bank.
Pretty sure they ended up at the UPS location just not in our mailbox. 4 different clients. Same pattern. But i agree on the point that it should be the client who should cancel the check and pay me since the checks are not endorsed.
Does the client have some kind of tracking proof? If not, then from your side the check was never received. Ask for them to put on a stop payment and have a new check issued.
I can’t believe you waited until the fourth one to get the police involved, and even then didn’t immediately think “I need to report this theft.” The longer you wait, the greater the chance video evidence goes away.
This problem belongs to the check maker which is your client. His check was stolen and he needs to resolve this. He will have to see an officer at his branch and fill out an affidavit to be sent to the bank that deposited the check. It may take 6 months or so but the check maker owns this problem. He still owes you the money up and until you receive it.
Yes report it to the police. That’s fraud. If JPC cached checks that were not endorsed they are probably on the hook (Not a lawyer). If they were then someone also committed forgery.
Thank you. Will report it to the police
If you are struggling to get a response from Chase, drop in a CFPB for good measure. I had a ridiculous issue a few years ago in which Chase failed to credit my account for a deposit and only a CFPB complaint got me traction:
Definitely report this to the police. This is fraud and theft. Call your back and ask to speak to someone in their fraud department and tell them what is happening. They should be able to help you as well.
A ‘simple mistake’ by UPS by opening your checks and then depositing them into an account you have no idea about?
What are you talking about?
You need to get law enforcement on this NOW.
1+1= an employee is stealing checks from your box because they now know you won’t do anything about it.
Crazy.
The first check was deposited(and endorsed) by a doctors office whose mailbox was next to ours and they promptly paid us back when we notified them a month ago. That made me think the second check was similar. But when 2 more checks hit last week, something didn’t look right
So they are reaching their destination at the ups store. Then they go into your rental mailbox at that store? I’m not a betting man but someone at that store is doing it.
Based on the way OP wrote it, they have no proof they are reaching the UPS store.
Call the police and file a report. Contact JPC to report the fraud and demand payment. Go to the UPS store and ask to speak to the franchise owner, not the manager. Tell them there is going to be an investigation into the stolen checks. This will likely stop it from happening for a while.
This is why, i don’t deal with checks on a large payment. Not worth the risk, instead i’d rather take the payment through a bank transfer/ACH or something. Then rather to have it mailed.