Protect Yourself and Safeguard Your Finances: Don't Abbreviate 2020

The New Year is giving scammers a new opportunity to commit fraud. Abbreviating the year 2020 as 20 allows scammers to easily pre-date or post-date your checks and legal documents, by changing the abbreviated year 20 (e.g. to 2019, or 2021). Writing out a full date and year on your checks protects you from potential fraud.

Although most financial institutions have policies to only accept checks up to 6 months after the date indicated, taking the extra step and writing the full year prevents you from being a victim. Not only should you write the full year on your checks, but also on important documents or contracts.

For example, if you make a legally-binding agreement to pay another party beginning on 1/8/2020, but only write 1/8/20 on the document, the person who you’ve stated you would pay could easily change the document to read as 1/8/2019, in an attempt to obtain additional money from you.

Remember, important documents, such as those that need to be notarized, should always be dated with the full year 2020. Without the full year written the documents can easily be pre- or post-dated without your consent.

Protect yourself and your finances, write out the full year on your checks and legal documents.