I just recently was a victim to "check washing," where a former tenant took an outgoing letter and then "washed" the check, adding his employer into the "pay to

I just recently was a victim to "check washing," where a former tenant took an outgoing letter and then "washed" the check, adding his employer into the "pay to" field... original (and fake) check were for thousands of dollars (same amount). Listening to my banker describe the [essentially lack of] features securing modern US checking, I decided then and there to remove most of the money from my checking account — all future checks will be cashier's cheque (which apparently offers much more security, including "pay to" verification before funds x-fer). I've also stopped using credit cards, and instead use a random CC # for each transaction service (the cost is minimal for the protection).