Pinellas Park business owner says he had check stolen from mail, caught it before he lost money

Cases of check fraud

A Tampa woman who had a check stolen out of the mail got her money back, and had been working with Tampa police on the issue. Since then, though, FOX 13 has gotten multiple calls and emails about other cases of check fraud across the Tampa Bay area. FOX 13's Danielle Zulkosky reports. 

PINELLAS PARK, Fla. - Alan Sayler, the owner of Sayler's Suncoast Water, said he mailed a check from the USPS mailbox outside his business last summer — but it was stolen and used to commit fraud against him. 

"I finally saw a check come through in an amount that I didn't recognize, and I was able to click on ‘open the check,’" Sayler said. "And, I saw the name on the check, and I'm going 'who is this? I don't know who that is.'"

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He said he caught it in time, and called his bank, stopping the check before he lost any money. 

"Apparently he opened the account without even walking in the bank," Sayler said. "Was depositing stuff with just a picture on the phone. So as far as I know, they didn't even have a picture of the person that had done this."

Dig deeper:

Other damage was already done, though. Sayler had to close his account and stop all other payments and transactions for his business and to this day, he's still dealing with the fallout.

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"Last month, I think we had someone that said we couldn't get it on this debit card," Sayler said. "Well, that was, they had our old debit card, and we didn't realize."

Sayler does not know who stole the check or how they did it.

"We put it into the box in the morning, the mail guy comes typically, I think around two, three in the afternoon," Sayler said. "So if someone was fishing around in the middle of the day, it looked pretty suspicious right here in the wide open."

He reached out to the United States Postal Inspector after speaking to his local branch about the issue, but he did not hear back. He wants USPS to take some accountability for this widespread issue.

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"Never heard anything back from the post office," Sayler said. "And I'm thinking, our U.S. Postal Service [has] got a problem and no one seems to care."

The Tampa Bay area business owner said he is taking steps to protect himself.

"We don't put any more checks in here," Sayler said. "We go to the mail to the post office, and we mail it at the post office. But I'm not convinced that's any more secure than putting it in this box."

The other side:

Sayler filed a police report in Pinellas Park, but he has not heard of any arrests yet. A representative with the United States Postal Inspector said USPS OIG cannot comment on this matter, but the representative did share these tips:

"USPS customers can also take proactive measures to protect their mail.  When utilizing a USPS blue collection box, we recommend looking at the collection times located on the box.  If you have missed the last collection time for the day, maybe hand your outgoing mail to your letter carrier or mail it inside the Post Office.  Criminals tend to work after dark.  Don’t let your mail sit overnight in a USPS blue collection box or even in your residential mailbox.  If you see someone suspicious lurking near a USPS blue collection box after dark, call the police immediately, then report it to the US Postal Inspection Service at 877-876-2455.  If you believe your mail was stolen, report it immediately online at www.uspis.gov/report or by calling 877-876-2455."