The dawn of the new decade is upon us and it is bringing new legal challenges along with it. 2020 is creating a unique opportunity for scammers to easily manipulate the year on documents and leave people potentially vulnerable to fraud. Authorities issued a warning to avoid abbreviating in the New Year. This is because if you date something for example, 1/1/20 it can easily be changed to any dated year within the last two decades. Ira Rheingold, executive director for the National Association of Consumer Advocates gives another example of future dating a stale check. “If you have an old check lying around that's dated 1/4/20 and someone finds it, they could add "21" to the end of that date, and voila, the check is no longer stale”. Make sure you are writing the full year out 2020 when dating any legal or important documents including signing checks.

Check out our other blog posts on 8 more prevention tips on how to avoid financial scams.

Visit our Financial Knowledge Blog to learn more tips on setting up a solid financial future or join us for Financial Wellness Wednesdays.