I have heard about people stealing checks out of the mail, personal checks that you write to others or vice versa. I’ve seen video of people stealing checks out of the mailboxes that are on the street (drop boxes). The news report that I saw said if you are going to mail anything, put it in the post office, not the mail box, even if the mail box is outside the PO.
I write very few checks – only to organizations I’m attending for events like picnics or holiday parties, or to the guy who mows my lawn. I don’t do Zelle or Venmo – I have my bills set up so the money either comes directly out of my checking account or the bill is invoiced to my credit card and then I pay the card directly from my checking account.
I have my credit cards set up so I get an alert if something is charged to the card without the actual card being present, so anytime my Netflix account or something like that is charged to the card, I get an email letting me know. That way, if the card number is ever used by someone, I would know right away.
A friend of the family had 8k stolen out of her checking account. Someone in my family who is a CPA/CFP said it’s actually quite easy to do, as long as you have the routing number and the checking account number.