Southern Indiana business owner becomes victim of check washing, nearly losing thousands of dollars

NEW ALBANY, Ind. (WDRB) -- A small business owner in southern Indiana said thieves almost caused him to lose thousands of dollars after they were able to gain access to his checking account.

Last week, New Albany chiropractor Dr. Thomas Briscoe put his rent check in the mailbox. But the check was stolen before it could reach his landlord, duplicated and passed at banks across Kentuckiana.

"It definitely seems like it's a very organized ring," said Briscoe.

Lately, he and his staff have been doing more than just treating patients.

"They turned into a fraud prevention team like they were contacting banks, getting checks, getting descriptions, all of that for the officer," Briscoe said.

It started last week when he got a call from his bank.

"One of their tellers there found the gentleman with a check made out to him from our business account," he said.

While it was written on the business' account, there were some red flags raised about the check.

"(It) seemed his activity was suspicious," Briscoe said. "The signature didn't match and she called just to verify if it was a legitimate check."

But Briscoe said the check was not legitimate, and suspects it was stolen from his mailbox.

"It was actually a check in that same amount, same number check that was written to our landlord, who's in Franklin, Tennessee," he said.

It was one of several fake checks in circulation.

"The first four checks were a little over $5,000, we don't know the last two checks, in total. The first ones around $2,200, the other ones were just under $1,000 each," Briscoe said.

The thieves were able to write out multiple checks with the one stolen check through check washing.

"They've got the technology to be able to scan that check, and then they've got the printer, the ink, (and) the paper to match all the security protocols that it's everything getting through besides the alert," Briscoe explained. "He completely wiped the name and the signature off of the check, everything, rewrote it."

No arrests have been made yet, but police have several suspects. Anyone with information about this case or the suspect is asked to call the New Albany Police Department.