Colorado mail theft victim fights to get refund after check fraud

With a  check in hand, a Coloradan is breathing a sigh of relief.

"Forty-six hundred dollars is a lot of money to me, to have lost," Carol told CBS Colorado. For the purposes of this story, Carol asked her full name be kept private. 

In April, Carol wrote a check to pay her property taxes and dropped it in a blue USPS Collection Box outside of a Lakewood post office. Weeks later, she learned that check never made it.

"It was deposited via phone mobile bank in New York state, and they had changed the name on the check," Carol said. "They didn't change the amount."

Instead, the check had been washed and was made out to someone she had never heard and deposited electronically. Carol's bank BMO has a digital banking guarantee that, if an unauthorized transaction meets certain terms and conditions, it will notify the bank of the fraud within two business days.

Carol didn't know she'd been a victim of fraud until much later.

"I had written the check to an HOA for a special assessment, and I got a [delinquency] notice from them, and I thought, 'How could this be?'" Carol explained.

Carol spent months trying to explain that situation to the bank and got nowhere. Then, CBS Colorado asked about its policy and what protections are in place when it comes to  mobile banking. BMO didn't answer the question, but Carol did.

"You had let me know that you made some inquires, and, then suddenly last Friday, I got a call from one of the district managers from BMO asking where I would like my money sent."

The Colorado Bankers Association did provide answers to some of questions about safe guards in place to combat check fraud. CBA says it relies on a variety of measures like deposit reviews, fraud detection tools, hold policies  and customer education

Carol says, moving forward, she will be doing what she can to protect herself.

"If I have something to mail, I go into the post office these days," she said.