Unfortunately, if you're still using paper checks to pay bills or send money to others, you could be a victim of an old scam that's recently come back into fashion: check washing. Check washing is when thieves steal checks you've written and use a chemical solution to remove the ink from the amount and the payee lines (while leaving your signature behind). According to IAG, check washing accounts for more than $815 million of stolen money every year, and first began in the 1980s.