Public details are sparse, but the Wilton Police confirmed to GOOD Morning Wilton that they’re investigating an incident of check fraud relating a payment the town made to someone doing work on the police headquarters building project.
“This is a case under active investigation,” Lt. Anna Tornello said, who provided minimal details.
The most she would confirm is that the matter was brought to law enforcement’s attention in March and involved some variety of check fraud for a “large” amount of money originating with the town.
“It’s a larceny first if over $20,000,” Tornello said, noting that, depending on the results of the investigation, other charges could potentially include forgery and identity theft.
“We don’t know how the check was obtained,” she said.
Assistant Director of Public Works Jeff Pardo, who is the project manager overseeing the police station project, did not respond to an inquiry, instead referring the matter to Town Administrator Matt Knickerbocker.
“Taxpayer interests are fully protected, but because this is an active investigation that is currently underway, I can’t say anything other than that at this time,” Knickerbocker said.
Knickerbocker knocked down reports that there were actually two thefts using the same check in different incidents. “That’s not accurate,” he said, stating there was one single incident.
Knickerbocker said that more information would be forthcoming after the investigation into the incident is closed.
“Public funds are in no danger,” he said. “That’s as far as I can go.”
Both Knickerbocker and Tornello said they had never before heard of such a check fraud incident happening to the town administration before, but the detective cautioned it’s not uncommon in the general population.
“Check fraud can happen in many different ways,” she said.
“A check can be stolen from the mail when you send it … when it’s in transit … Sometimes postal workers can be victims of violent theft,” she said, or a check can be stolen from either a public or private mailbox.
Tornello described check washing as the ink in different parts of a check literally being erased, with new false information then written in — different amounts, different endorsements, etc. When done skillfully, she said it’s very hard for banks to know that the check has been tampered with.
Another form of check fraud, she said, involves a person cashing a check meant for a third party by using fake identification.
In other cases people will actually photograph checks that have been scanned online and print out new, entirely fake checks, using someone’s account information as part of the new check.
“Once the check is in the hands of a criminal, it can be used in many different ways,” Tornello said.
“Technically, I think the best way of avoiding this is not (to) send checks in the mail,” she said, “or pay an extra fee and have a signature at arrival, so you know the actual check has been transferred to the intended recipient.”
With the rise of online banking, new and more in-depth methods of fraud and theft have been cooked up by criminals, including email scams that prompt a victim to pay a bill online.
“They intercept emails that contain invoices and they will reach out (pretending) to be the company that’s owed that money … so always verify through the phone number … in the initial contact,” Tornello said, “so you’re in contact with somebody who’s with the company, who you trust.”
“Never send money to somebody who sent you an email,” she said.
“This is a multi-billion dollar industry with fraud … Unfortunately it’s very difficult to pursue,” she said.