Business owner says fraudulent checks are being forged in SE New Mexico

HOBBS, N.M. (KRQE) –  A New Mexico business owner is trying to figure out who could be forging checks in his name. He says it’s happened multiple times, and that other people are being targeted too. “It’s a very sophisticated group that seems to be doing this,” said Wade Cavitt, a Hobbs business owner.

Recently Cavitt’s wife noticed a check for more than one thousand dollars was cashed, under one of Cavitt’s businesses, Cavitt Land and Cattle. Cavitt says he didn’t write that check. “We got a copy of the check, it didn’t match the current check, the number sequence was not in our current sequence,” Cavitt explained.

Then a few days later, two more checks, worth more than two thousand dollars were cashed under his second business, Lobo Nut and Bolt. The money has since been replaced by his bank, but he’s had to pay hundreds to get new checks, cancel his account, reopen a new one, and for extra security measures to prevent this from happening again.

“Each morning by 9:30, we have to go in and look at our checking account and approve any check that was issued in the last 24-hours,” Cavitt said. He says he’s not alone. “When we contacted the bank, they told us they had processed one for $70,000.”

He says he did report the fraudulent checks to Hobbs Police, but he hasn’t been given any updates on the investigation. He wants to know if they’re still looking into the case. KRQE News 13 reached out to Hobbs Police for information on the case, and to get an update on the investigation, KRQE News 13 did not get a response.