China News Service, April 11. According to the US "World Journal" report, a Chinese in Los Angeles County, the United States, had his rent check stolen and received the news three months later. After verification, the payee's name, The amount has been maliciously tampered with.
At the urging of the apartment management company, he had to make up the rent.
The victim has now reported the case to the bank, but there is no hope that the stolen money will be recovered.
Mr. Zhang, a resident of Arcadia, sends the apartment management company a check for the month's rent at the beginning of each month, and it has never been delayed.
But one day in March this year, I received a letter from the management company, "I was shocked when I opened the letter. This is a letter urging the payment of rent. The other party said that I did not pay the rent on time in December last year and asked to pay it up."
But Mr. Zhang clearly remembered that he did not owe any rent.
"I quickly checked my bank card records, only to find out that the rent check for December (2021) was stolen by a stranger." You can see from this check stub retrieved from online banking, December 2021 On December 6, Mr. Zhang filled out the rent check, and at 11:21 on December 7 the next day, a person named Jose cashed the check, and the specific amount was also revised.
"My monthly rent is 1,250 yuan (US dollars, the same below), but the amount has been changed to 1,259 yuan when I cash it." Mr. Zhang also pointed out, "The name of the payee on the check, I originally wrote the apartment management Company, but it has been changed to a Hispanic name, and the tampered handwriting is very similar to mine, and I feel that the other party is a very experienced veteran.” How the rent check sent was stolen, and why the apartment management company Will you be notified to pay the rent after three months?
These questions left Mr. Zhang puzzled.
Mr. Zhang is a staff member of the United States Postal Service (USPS), and every time he mails a rent check, he will put it directly in the distribution box of his post office, "so the possibility of stealing the check from the mailbox does not exist. There are only two It's possible that the cheque was sent to the wrong address by the postman, or there is an internal problem with the management company that received the cheque."
Mr. Zhang immediately called the management company of the apartment and got a reply that they would investigate the matter. The company has a cheque collector. Mr. Zhang's rent for December was indeed not recorded in his account. As for why he only received the notice of arrears for three months , the other party said that they usually take a while to check rent payments.
The helpless Mr. Zhang had to make up the rent of 1,250 yuan. "To be honest, I don't want to get stuck with the other party because of this matter. After all, it is expensive and troublesome to rent a new house again. The person in charge of the management company also told me that the check was stolen. Very common, let me call the bank to see if it is possible to recover the loss."
A few days after the incident, Mr. Zhang called the Fraud Prevention Department of Bank of America, and the staff pulled out the check stub and clearly pointed out that the check had been maliciously tampered with, "the bank said that after technical appraisal, it was confirmed that the check was The name and amount on the account have traces of modification, and they will investigate the case."
The whole process of negotiating with the bank gave Mr. Zhang a headache, "I deliberately took a day off to deal with this matter, closed the original account, and opened a new account. What's more troublesome is that my salary is directly imported into this account, Fixed monthly expenses such as water, electricity and coal are also paid directly from this account, and now all have to be changed again, which wastes a lot of time.”
According to relevant personnel, when a check is stolen, many banks will pay the victim for the loss in advance, but Mr. Zhang said that now more than a month has passed, and in addition to receiving a letter from Bank of America during the period An investigative report, requesting details of the cheques being stolen, has not received any information on the progress of the case.
As for whether the amount can be recovered in the end, Mr. Zhang said that he has no hope, "I can only admit that I am unlucky and reflect on my carelessness. I should check the monthly bill information in time, so that I will know the first time. If the amount of the check has been tampered with, it may be discovered early, and the possibility of recovering the money is high. It is not necessary to wait three months to find out that the check has been stolen. But after this incident, I feel that the check has been stolen. It’s hard to guard against it, and it’s us ordinary people who suffer.” (Shao Min)