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07/24/2025
Monroe County Sheriff's Office arrests 20 in check-fraud scheme | Here's what the sheriff had to say
MSN13WMAZ
FORSYTH, Ga. — The Monroe County Sheriff's Office arrested 20 people in a multi-state identity theft operation dubbed "Operation Fall Guy," according to officials with the sheriff's office.
The sheriff's office says the investigation centers on a check-washing scheme where criminals steal checks from mailboxes, use household chemicals to remove the original payee information and dollar amounts, then rewrite the checks for much larger sums using fake identities.
"We started getting a lot of complaints, reports about thefts of where people were basically forging checks, what you call bleaching checks," Sheriff Brad Freeman said. "So we started an operation."
The scheme has reached across state lines, with one recent arrest made in Toledo, Ohio. Freeman said many of the suspects never set foot in Georgia, but face charges in Monroe County because that's where the victims live.
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