CRIME / GLOBAL MAIL THEFT : Stamping Out Postal Larceny : Thousands of checks are stolen every year in Latin America, Argentina is particularly hard hit but is fighting back.

If white-collar crime sounds innocuous, consider this: Thieves are making off with benefit checks mailed to survivors of World War II concentration camps and other victims of Nazi persecution.

The West German Embassy in Buenos Aires receives about 100 complaints of stolen checks every week, some from Holocaust survivors who failed to receive government checks sent from West Germany, according to embassy spokesman Wolfgang Siegel.

And the theft of German immigrants’ benefits is but the most grievous aspect of the problem, which is reported to be growing in a number of Latin American countries and reaching into the U.S. banking system. Thousands of checks are stolen every year, involving networks of people who open bank accounts in Miami and other U.S. cities, deposit the checks and then clear out the accounts.

The check stealing is undermining confidence in a number of postal systems, including those in Argentina and Peru, and it is prompting a widespread flight to alternative, private carriers.

Authorities in Argentina are mounting a major campaign to deal with the problem, which has worsened over the last several years. Postal authorities from around the Americas, including the United States, are joining forces to try to stamp it out.

Omar Ramseyer, chief of postal inspections in Argentina, said it is not clear whether the checks disappear in the Argentine postal system or while en route to his country. He said the problem demands greater international cooperation, particularly from the United States, because “95% of the stolen checks end up in banks in Miami.”

Thomas L. Holladay, the U.S. consul general in Buenos Aires, takes sworn statements from five to 10 people per day who report their checks stolen--down from a peak of 20 per day before U.S. officials began sending checks through a private carrier.

“Of most concern to the United States,” Holladay said, “is white-collar crime involving people who open bank accounts, playing the role of Latin potentate, load the account with fraudulent checks and then walk.”

He said the average stolen check is for about $300, “but I handled one yesterday that was for $19,000.”

Argentina, a nation full of European immigrants, is particularly susceptible to such financial fraud. Many people receive pensions or other payments from governments or relatives abroad. Also, the economic crisis and the tendency toward tax evasion encourage Argentines to send money abroad.

Usually, the fraudulent bank account holders withdraw money at infrequent intervals in an effort to discourage scrutiny. But Holladay said one Florida bank official reacted to his warning of potential bad accounts by telling him that one account was $350,000 in the red and that the holder disappeared.

Ramseyer said thieves in the post office steal and sell the checks for about 20% of face value to middlemen, who slip the checks into the financial system or deposit them abroad.

Check theft takes frustratingly imaginative forms. Sometimes, whole bags of mail are stolen, or a postman is robbed or bribed, or a mail truck is hijacked.

In the latest variation, Ramseyer said, thieves persuade a postal employee to “rent” them a bag of mail for 24 hours. Postal workers are paid only $100 to $150 a month, and they are usually amenable to such “loans.” The thieves sift through the bag, taking what they want, and then return it.

Ramseyer has placed more inspectors at airports and increased surprise raids on suspected departments. But Argentina’s courts and legal system conspire against the inspectors. No one is ever jailed for a postal offense, and few are convicted.