"He decided to welcome himself to my bank account:" How writing a check can make you a target for thieves

MILWAUKEE (WITI) -- Leaving a tip for a job well done. It's a great way to show gratitude -- but it could cost you! Can writing a check make you a target for thieves?

"I was really disappointed that it happened to me," fraud victim Maureen Webster said.

Webster still can't believe an identity thief stole thousands of dollars from her. The most frustrating part? The thief was her newspaper delivery man!

"In my mind, he was a nice, hard-working man. I never thought twice about tipping a newspaper delivery person with a personal check," Webster said.

Webster says she will think twice from now on.

"He decided to make some additional checks that looked like mine and he decided to welcome himself to all of the money in my bank account," Webster said.

The story didn't end with the fraudulent checks.

"They filed fraudulent tax returns for 2012. They filed fraudulent state income tax returns for 2012. They got into my Fidelity account and tried to take out $10,000," Webster said.

So how did the newspaper delivery man access all of this information?

"It amazes me that somehow all this information is in cyber space. With just a name and address he was able to find out all the information," Webster said.

Webster wasn't alone.

Postal inspectors say a ring of newspaper delivery men stole millions of dollars from more than 400 victims.

"Add zeros where they shouldn`t be added, cash checks on their accounts and then put in change of address of the people, getting the mail delivered to his house, get bank statements and enter into their bank accounts and engage in account takeovers," U.S. Postal Inspector Ryan Noonan said.

After a few months, the suspect was arrested.

"He wasn`t hard to find. He was smart enough to figure out how to write checks out of people's accounts, but he wasn`t smart enough to NOT write his name and address on his. He basically led them right to him," Webster said.

It's important to remember to check your bank statements to make sure the check amounts match. If you wrote a check for $30, make sure there's not a bank debit of $300 or $3,000 instead. And if you do your banking online, you can check a lot more frequently than simply waiting on a once-a-month bank statement.