Many residents have been asking for a way to pay their annual Civic Association dues online instead of writing checks and we have delivered. You can now securely pay your annual dues by credit card using the form on this page. The form captures the information that we keep to maintain our CAHHH membership, including your name(s), address, and email(s) that we use to periodically send out informational emails. We can not see and we do not store any financial information. See more about the security of the online payment system below.
You still have the option to pay more than the $10, which some members have graciously done in the past. You also have the option to offset the transaction fee which we would greatly appreciate. This provides us with additional funds for the activities that we support. For a $10 donation, the credit card transaction fee is currently around 84¢, which is just a few pennies more than price of a 78¢ stamp.
You will receive an email confirmation of your payment.
Of course, we will gladly take paper checks if that is your preference.
For your convenience, a form is available to download (click here). Please include it with your check. However, the form isn't required if you would rather just provide your name(s), address, and email(s) and include it with your check. Please print clearly so we can accurately enter your information.
Please note: do not turn your payment in at the Lodge.
We do not share any of your information.
Please mail checks to:
CAHHH
P. O. Box 43
Riva, MD 21140-0043
Questions? Send an email to civic.assoc.hhh@gmail.com.
We are using a payment system called Donorbox, which works with Stripe to process payments.
Here's the deep dive if you're interested. Donorbox uses Stripe's secure token mechanism. Card numbers are tokenized (the number is changed to an indecipherable string) before they charge the card. Therefore, Donorbox doesn't keep any record of the donor's card number in their database and logs.
Donorbox is Payment Card Industry (PCI) compliant under "PCI validation: SAQ A" and utilize Stripe Elements technology that has financial input fields which are done securely in Stripe's iframe. Stripe is certified as a PCI Level 1 Service Provider. This is the most stringent level of certification available in the payments industry.
The transmission between the donors, the Donorbox form, and Stripe is encrypted using 256bit SSL/TLS. Stripe is one of the most secure and trusted payment providers. It is used by X, Shopify, Kickstarter, Lyft, and others.
Mailing checks is becoming increasingly risky because checks can easily be stolen from mailboxes and altered. For example, check washing scams involve changing the payee names and often the dollar amounts on checks and fraudulently depositing them. Occasionally, these checks are stolen from mailboxes (even the blue post office boxes) and washed in chemicals to remove the ink. Some scammers will even use copiers or scanners to print fake copies of a check.
Ways to Protect Yourself
Limit your use of checks.
Rather than physical checks, utilize online payment platforms or online banking tools to send money.
If you use checks, be sure to write in black gel pens (i.e. Sharpie) as this ink is the hardest to remove by scammers.
Monitor your bank account and bank statements.
If any suspicious activity is detected immediately contact your bank to notify them.
Report any missing checks.
Stay informed on the most recent frauds and threats to your financial assets.
If you have any questions or concerns about check washing contact the United States Postal Inspection Service by calling 1-877-876-2455.
If you must, keep an eye on your account statements, experts say. Thieves steal checks from mailboxes, then alter the checks with fraudulent names.
By Ann Carrns
June 26, 2026
A practice that was common not so long ago has become increasingly risky — sending checks in the mail. But if you must send money this way, scour your account statements promptly.
Skipping that advice can leave you vulnerable to check fraud, and may also make it more difficult to recover the money if you lose it.
Joan K. Atchinson, 63, a retiree who lives in Washington, D.C., is dealing with that right now.
Ms. Atchinson said in a phone interview that she was trying to recover several thousand dollars stolen when someone intercepted a check she mailed last year. The check was altered to be payable to someone else before it was cashed. After months of trying, she said, she still has not recovered payment from either of the two banks involved — Charles Schwab, where she has an account that she used to write the check, and Chase, where the falsified check was cashed. “I’ve kind of lost hope.”
Checks sent through the Postal Service have become targets for criminals in recent years. While fewer people write checks, the checks haven’t disappeared. Two-thirds of adults say they rarely or never use paper checks, but more than a fifth either have experienced check fraud or know someone who has, according to a poll in 2025 by the Independent Community Bankers of America, a trade group.
In some cases, thieves may pilfer one or more checks from local mailboxes. Adam Rust, director of financial services for the Consumer Federation of America, said thieves sometimes “fish” for checks at free-standing drop boxes, using long tools with sticky pads on the ends to grab letters. In other cases, more sophisticated criminals may steal large batches of checks, copy them and then sell them on the internet.
Often, the purloined checks are chemically altered in what’s known as “check washing” to remove the name of the recipient. The thief replaces it with a fraudulent name, and often increases the amount of the check, before cashing or depositing it.
Ms. Atchinson appears to have been a victim of such a fraud.
She said she wrote a check in April 2025 for $3,719 from her account at Charles Schwab to pay 2024 income taxes she and her husband, Brian, owed to Maryland, where they lived previously.
Ms. Atchinson said that she didn’t recall where she had mailed the check, but that she had probably dropped it in the mail slot in the lobby of their condominium building. She recalled noticing that the payment had been deducted from her account, but said she hadn’t thought to view the electronic check image online.
Then, in February, she said, 10 months after the check was sent, the couple received a balance-due notice from the state. (It’s unclear why the tax notification took so long.) Ms. Atchinson said she had logged on to the Schwab account to obtain an image of the check, intending to use it as proof that she had paid the tax. That was when she saw, to her dismay, that the check had been changed and made payable, in unfamiliar handwriting, to a name she didn’t recognize.
The back of the check indicated that it had been deposited electronically at Chase. (Criminals tend to prefer remote options, like mobile deposit or automatic teller machines, to avoid interaction with bank personnel, the authorities say.)
Her discovery prompted her to call and email both banks multiple times and to file complaints with law enforcement agencies, she said, but she is uncertain if she will be reimbursed.
The banks involved have had some back and forth since May.
Meghan Durant, a spokeswoman for Chase, said in an email, “Unfortunately, we did not receive communication from Ms. Atchinson’s bank until over a year after the check was deposited, and there are no funds available to recover.” Chase said it had not received a “formal” claim from Schwab indicating that Chase was responsible for paying the funds. It added that it took such matters “seriously” and that the account had been closed.
Tatiana Stead, a spokeswoman for Schwab, said the bank had submitted Ms. Atchinson’s affidavit to Chase and received a response on May 15 “advising that there were no funds available to recover.”
Ms. Atchinson said that she had contacted Schwab immediately when she had become aware of the fraud, noting that she had been a customer for “decades,” but that it hadn’t referred her case to a fraud specialist until May.
Ms. Stead sent an email to The New York Times on Wednesday saying, in part, “We sympathize with Ms. Atchinson.” But it added, “Timely reporting can significantly improve the ability to investigate potential fraud.”
Ms. Stead said on Thursday that a “final determination letter” was mailed to Ms. Atchinson earlier in the week outlining Schwab’s decision. Ms. Atchinson said she had not yet received the letter.
Schwab’s “security guarantee,” outlined on its website, says that “Schwab will cover losses in any of your Schwab accounts due to unauthorized activity.” But fine print at the bottom of the page notes that reimbursement “requires your timely reporting of unauthorized activity to Schwab,” and that Schwab “will not be liable for additional or increased losses resulting from a failure to report unauthorized activity in a timely manner.” It notes that more details are available in account agreements.
Notify your bank as soon as possible, said Scott Anchin, senior vice president of strategic initiatives and policy at the independent bankers association.
Banks generally allow at least 30 days and sometimes up to 90 days from the time your statement is made available to you to report suspected check fraud, he said. Check your account agreement.
(The agreement available online for a Schwab One account, which appears to be the kind of account Ms. Atchinson used, notes an even tighter window for reporting check fraud: 10 days. Ms. Stead, however, said the bank’s cutoff is 30 days.)
If you get statements online, the clock starts when the statement posts, even if you haven’t opened it yet. Review statements promptly, Mr. Anchin said, including the check images, because an altered recipient isn’t always obvious from a one-line entry on a statement. Banks typically make check images available online or by request.
Sorting out which bank is liable can be “quite time consuming,” Mr. Anchin said. It may depend on details of the incident, like what sort of alterations were made to the check. “There’s a lot that goes on behind the scenes,” he said, but typically, “the customer’s bank wants to make them whole.”
Try to break the check-mailing habit. “No one should ever mail a check,” Mr. Rust said.
If you must write a check, he said, try to deliver it in person or take it inside a post office to mail rather than relying on your own mailbox or public drop boxes.
The American Bankers Association recommends using permanent “gel” ink pens when you do write checks to reduce the risk of tampering. Promptly review your bank statements — including online check images — for anything that looks suspicious. And if you don’t already, consider using your bank’s online bill payment service.
All states now offer some type of electronic payment option for paying taxes, so look into using your state’s system if you owe money at tax time.
The federal government has been moving away from paper checks for things like benefit payments and income tax refunds, saying digital payment methods are more secure. But any effort to do away with all paper checks is likely to be contentious.
The Federal Reserve system, which acts as a central clearinghouse and electronically processes millions of checks daily, recently sought public input on potential changes to its check services.
More than 300 people and groups responded, many of them representatives of banks serving rural and agricultural communities where paper checks remain important. The chief executive of PriorityOne Bank, for instance, a community bank based in Magee, Miss., said in a comment letter that the bank served many low- and moderate-income rural communities with limited internet access. So online payments aren’t a reliable option, particularly for older residents who aren’t comfortable with digital banking.
Criminals use chemicals to “wash” away the recipent's name and dollar amount, and then rewrite the check to themselves.
June 17, 2026
Column by Michelle Singletary
We’ve become so used to high-tech cybercrime that we may sometimes forget about the vulnerability of our mailboxes.
But an old-school, low-tech scam is surging and is more than enough reason to avoid or limit writing paper checks altogether. And the recent predicament faced by a California couple who reached out to me shows how challenging it can be to retrieve money after a check’s been altered.
According to a joint warning from the FBI and the U.S. Postal Service, check fraud is skyrocketing. Federal data shows that reports of check fraud nearly doubled from 350,000 in 2021 to 680,000 in 2022.
It’s gotten so bad that the agencies recommend considering e-checks, ACH automatic payments and other electronic or mobile payments.
In 2010, there were just over 2,200 high-volume mail theft attacks, and by 2023, that number had skyrocketed to over 49,000, a “2,000 percent explosion,” Frank Albergo, president of the Postal Police Officers Association, said last summer during testimony before a House subcommittee.
“This is not about lost birthday cards anymore,” Albergo said. “We’ve entered an era of organized postal crime.”
Criminals use everyday household chemicals like acetone or bleach to “wash” away the payee’s name and dollar amount, allowing them to rewrite the check to themselves.
The California couple recently learned this the hard way after getting a notice from the Internal Revenue Service that they had missed their quarterly tax payment and now owed $12,000 plus interest and penalties.
The couple, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to protect their privacy, were shocked and puzzled. They knew they had paid on time.
“We looked at our online Chase statement, and the check had cleared,” the wife said in an email.
But when they pulled up the scanned image of the cleared check, they saw that someone had changed the “pay to the order line,” erasing the IRS as the recipient and replacing it with an individual’s name.
This isn’t limited to personal checkbooks. Fraudsters are going after business payments, tax refunds and checks related to government assistance programs, such as Social Security and unemployment benefits, according to the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network.
If your tax refund from the government is stolen and cashed, there’s a process to report the theft. However, recovering from a stolen personal check can be much harder.
Once they realized what had happened, the California couple contacted Chase. But they were told they had missed the deadline to report the fraud. The check had been stolen and deposited a year earlier.
Still, they persisted and found that the check had been deposited by another Chase customer.
“We feel the bank was negligent in this transaction and owes us reimbursement,” the wife said. “I feel we could make a good argument, 60 days or not.”
They reached out to ask if I could help.
Chase’s initial refusal was technically legal. The deadlines for reporting and recovering funds are primarily governed by your bank’s deposit agreement and the Uniform Commercial Code. If you miss the window, the liability usually falls on you.
However, given how pervasive fraud is, financial institutions should do whatever they can to do the right thing, even when they aren’t in the wrong.
After I inquired about the case, Chase reinvestigated the situation. The bank was able to trace the fraudulent account to which the stolen money had been routed. It turned out there was still about $11,000 sitting in that account, enough to almost entirely reimburse the victimized couple.
This couple was incredibly fortunate. Most of the time, the money is long gone before a customer or bank discovers the scam.
“We’re pleased we were able to resolve this matter,” Chase spokesman Jerry Dubrowski said in an email.
It was a win for this couple, but a warning for the rest of us.
“We encourage customers to avoid mailing checks and to use safer payment methods, such as electronic transactions,” Dubrowski said. “If a customer must use a check, they should review their monthly statements to ensure payments are properly recorded.”
The primary reason washed checks clear successfully is that modern bank processing relies heavily on automation and speed.
Unless a check is manually inspected for evidence of tampering — such as chemical staining, discoloration or a mismatch between the signature’s handwriting and the payee line — a fraudulent check can clear, and the funds will be transferred directly to the thief.
If you still choose to write a check, the FBI and the Postal Service offer these tips.
Get your mail as soon as you can. Definitely don’t let it sit in your mailbox overnight. And avoid leaving outgoing mail in unattended home mailboxes with the red flag up.
Use the Postal Service hold mail service if you are heading out of town.
Buy security envelopes so thieves can’t see there’s a check inside.
Go inside the post office to drop off outgoing mail. If you absolutely must use an outdoor blue box, don’t deposit a check after the day’s final pickup time.
Write checks with permanent, indelible black gel ink. Standard ballpoint pen ink washes off easily; gel ink traps itself in the paper fibers.
Don’t leave blank gaps on the payee or dollar amount lines where a thief can sneak in extra words or numbers.
Don’t just check your bank balance online. Look at the actual digital image of your cleared checks to confirm the payee’s name wasn’t altered.
Check your online banking activity frequently. Verify everything about it.
If a check you wrote is taking longer than usual to clear, or if you spot any missing funds, contact your bank immediately.
Order checks that have security features, such as microprinting, watermarks or chemically reactive paper that bleeds when touched by bleach or acetone.
It’s unfortunate we have to become forensic investigators just to pay our bills. But as criminals continue to exploit old-school vulnerabilities, we must be overzealous in protecting ourselves.