Still waiting for your IRS refund check? It may be for sale on the dark web

LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- There's nothing better than when the government owes you. But thieves are snatching refund checks sent to California, and they're reselling them at a record rate.

Not even daylight and a doorbell cam will stop them. Thieves are snatching mail by the handful, leaving behind nothing but busted up mailboxes.

So where does the stolen mail go?

"The market is still very hot for this type of commodities. We're still seeing a lot of envelopes being offered for sale out there," described David Maimon with Georgia State University.

Maimon studies underground markets. Many refund checks sent from the IRS were stolen in California. Maimon found a huge stash of refunds now for sale on the dark web.

"California and L.A. has always been a hot spot of check theft," Maimon said.

He also sent Eyewitness News individual refund checks for sale. One was for $1,059 that should be going to a man in Long Beach. Another check was for $1,115 that belongs in the bank account of a Cerritos woman. And another check is for $1,311, and it belongs to a Los Angeles man.

We can see just a sliver of these checks. You get all of it when you send the seller cash.

"There's a lot of information on the check that if you have it, you can actually print it on your own and then simply go and cash it without really getting into too much trouble for it," Maimon explains.

Maimon is also finding on the dark web checks to the IRS. For example, a $15,000 tax payment was intercepted and is now for sale.

Maimon tracked 84 dark web market places and found 4,000 - 5,000 stolen checks every month.

"It looks like the market is saturated with the checks at this point," he said.

It's so saturated that crooks are selling stolen personal checks for now as little as $25 a piece.

So we are talking about a huge underground market here for your checks. Maimon sent Eyewitness News about a dozen examples of IRS checks for sale just from the L.A. area.

7 on Your Side Investigates did try to contact all these people to warn them their checks are out there, because they likely have no clue they're for sale.

The few we were able to get a hold of over the phone all hung up - but you can understand why they would be suspicious of getting a call like that because these markets are on the darkest part of the web.

If you need to send or receive a check through the mail, is there any way to protect your check?

It's an answer that may not be helpful for those who depend on mail, but Maimon and even USPS said it's better not to send checks in the mail because of the rampant theft. Do direct deposit or pay online instead.