A 36-year-old Federal Way man is being investigated for fraud after allegedly attempting to cash a “washed” check at the Sammamish branch of Wells Fargo earlier this month.

According to the report by Sammamish police, the suspect had handed his drivers license and credit card to the teller in the process of verification.

“The check was made out to (the suspect), but the area around the name appeared to have been tampered with,” the attending officer wrote.

Washed checks are often identified by a faded background in the area of the money value and the name, where what had been written was carefully erased and then written over.

When the teller attempted to process the check, an error message was received. The teller notified his supervisor, who in turn notified the police, by which time the suspect had taken his leave.