Should You Really Write ‘2020’ On Your Checks?

You've probably been seeing a lot of stories going around online about the supposed dangers of writing out checks using the abbreviated "/20" to signify the current year, and warning you that scammers could easily alter that number. The idea is that "1/1/20" could easily be forged to "1/1/2019".

That 'meme' has been shared countless times, but I've also read counter-arguments like this one:

I'm inclined to agree with the counter-argument, just because it seems like such a remote chance that someone would actually get their hands on a check I wrote and go through the effort of forging the year, and...get my money? I'm not even sure what the warning is for. I mean, first of all, who really writes checks anymore? My old apartment complex for some reason still only accepted check payments for rent, but that was literally the only thing I paid using an actual paper check.

I tend to rely on Snopes for stuff, and they don't really confirm or deny the "danger" of just writing "/20". I guess my mindset is that if someone is really that desperate to defraud me, there are plenty of ways they could do it, but why make it as easy as adding two digits? But to be fully honest, I'll probably try to write "2020" on one or two checks, then completely forget about the "danger" and go back to the old ways.

I also get that this refers to legal documents like mortgages or whatever...but I remember a few months ago when I bought my house, I had about 900 pages of paperwork to sign, and they were all witnessed by another person, so it seems like it would be somewhat easy to say "nope, that paperwork saying '2018' wasn't me".

More from 105.7 the Hawk: