Three Common But Illegal Money Habits You Might Be Guilty Of

Money

You’ve likely never been involved in an illegal money laundering scheme, knowingly passed counterfeit bills, or thought of yourself as a forger or a thief. However, there are some financial crimes you might be guilty of without ever considering your actions as illegal.

And while you are unlikely to get arrested for writing a check today even though payday’s not until tomorrow, you might want to be aware that some of these common habits, technically, are against the law.

Forgery

Are you are forger? Well, probably not. But have you ever signed your wife or husband’s name to a check or legal document? Many of us have been in this situation, and after years of marriage, you can probably do a pretty good job of imitating your spouse’s signature. Your husband is at work, or your wife is out of town, and you really need to mail off that insurance form.  Or you’re caring for an elderly parent and need to mail out checks to pay the electric bill, because your 80-something father probably doesn’t have electronic bill pay set up.

However, unless you have power of attorney, you are committing a crime every time you sign someone else’s name. It may be in the name of a relative who has given permission, or wouldn’t object, but it’s still forgery, and it’s still illegal.

Check Fraud

According to the 2010 Federal Reserve Payments study, the number of paper checks paid in 2009 is estimated to have been 24.4 billon, in contrast with 109.8 billion electronic transactions, nearly 38 billion of which were debit cards. Fifteen years earlier, the numbers were reversed; in 1995 there were nearly 50 billion checks paid in the U.S., and only 8 billion debit card transactions.

These days, if the money’s not in your account, your debit card or e-check won’t clear at the register. Modern technology has significantly reduced the amount of time and expense retailers spend dealing with bad checks. But there is at least one major drawback to debit card use and ACH transactions, from an average consumer’s point of view. Twenty years ago, you could go buy groceries Thursday night, write a check despite not having the funds, and be fairly sure that  Friday’s paycheck would cover the amount.

Regardless, you either have the money or you don’t, and writing a check when you don’t is illegal. And these days, with even paper checks processed electronically, you’re far more likely to get burned on the gamble.

Defacing Currency

We’ve all left a buck or two in a jeans pocket and then run them through the washer, or written a quick to-do list or phone number on the back of a dollar bill. The only law against defacing American currency is found in the United States Code, which states that “Whoever mutilates, cuts, defaces, disfigures, or perforates, or unites or cements together, or does any other thing to any bank bill, draft, note … with intent to render such bank bill, draft, note, or other evidence of debt unfit to be reissued, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than six months, or both.”

This is intended to prevent people from purposefully rendering money unusable, and writing your phone number on a dollar bill as a tip for that hot waitress doesn’t really count, but if you see any guys in black suits lurking about talking into their sleeves, it might be wise to find something else to draw or write on for the time being.

While no Treasury officials are going to cart you away for accidentally ripping a fiver in half in the wash, there’s a reason they discourage destroying or defacing money;  the U.S. Bureau of Engraving has a process for replacing mutilated currency, and handles around 30,000 claims a year valued at over $30 million. Experts have to examine and process every claim, and that sort of expertise doesn’t come cheap.