Abbreviating 2020 Could Open You Up To Fraud

Yay, it’s 2020.  Everyone has been waiting on the New Year, and scammers were too.  The popular question right now is “to abbreviate or not abbreviate the year 2020.”  Advice for the New Year is NOT to abbreviate 2020 on any documents.  Write out the date in its entirety; for example, 1/4/20 should be written out like this, 1/4/2020.  In leaving just the “20” for the year could open you up to the fraudulent activity.

According to CBS News, “If you wrote a signed check dated "1/3/20," for example, a scammer could easily change the date to read "2019," "2000," or any other year from this century. The scammers could use this change to try and cash an old check or forge an unpaid debt.”  Documents that are suggested that you don’t abbreviate “2020” on are checks, legal documents, and to play it safe, anything that you sign with a date.  The USA Today take on the matter is that “while it's early in the year for examples of this kind of fraud to emerge, the threat is real, according to Ira Rheingold, the executive director of the National Association of Consumer Advocates.”

I hardly write checks anymore, but my mother was in banking, and she always told me to write out the date like this January 1, 2020, not using numbers.  I’ve been doing this since I started signing my name and dating material.

Happy New Year - @MaryKRadio

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