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Check Forgery

All it takes to clean out your bank account is a signed check swiped from your outgoing mail and the chemical acetone commonly found in nail polish remover, says Frank W. Abagnale Jr., the former check forger and identity thief depicted by Leonardo Di Caprio in the movie Catch Me if You Can. It works like this:

1. The crook steals outgoing paid bills from your mailbox and places a piece of cellophane tape over th efront and back of your signature on the check.
   
   
2. Then he places the check into a pan of nail polish remover for about 30 minutes -- which lifts anything that's not printer's ink, except for your tape-protected signature.
   
   
3. The check is then blow-dried and flattened in a book, and the tape is carefully removed. Voila! a blank check, signed by you.

Only one type of ink -- the kind in gel pens -- is counterfeit-proof to acetone or any other chemical used in "check washing". "I recommend the Uni-ball Gel Impact pen, which sells for about $2 each at any office supply or chain store", says Abagnale, who now consults law enforcement and corporations on the art of the steal. "I personally sign all my checks and important documents with one."

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