I have seen some posts on Facebook about writing out the full year – 2020, instead of shortening to xx/xx/20.

When I read about it more, I realized just how much sense it makes in order to try to protect yourself from fraud.

20 is the beginning to each year from 2000-2099. Since 20 is also the last two numbers this year, some law enforcement professionals are advising to write out the entire year so it doesn’t get changed to another year – like 2001, 2007, 2016, and so on.

Forbes posted an article by cybersecurity journalist Kate O’Flaherty about this just the other day.

As the article points out, this could also be the case with the year ending in 19 – last year. Maybe it should have been brought to our attention before. That being said, the 1900-1999 years ended *gulp* 21 years ago, so it should be harder for someone attempting to commit fraud to make a document look like it was created that long ago, and signed that long ago.

Though it may be overly cautious, it may be a good idea to write out the entire year of 2020 on any important documents and checks this year!