Abbreviating 2020 on official documents could make you an easy fraud target, police warn

EAST MILLINOCKET, Maine - Police in Maine are warning people against abbreviating 2020 when signing documents, now that the new decade is upon us. 

“When signing and dating legal documents, do not use 20 as the year 2020,” the East Millinocket Police Department warned in a post on Facebook. 

Writing “20” as the year could potentially lead to fraud, as it is easy to modify the date to include different digits.
 

“March 3rd, 2020 being written as 3/3/20 could be modified 3/3/2017 or 3/3/2018,” the department wrote. 

Instead, the department recommends writing out the full year on all official documents. 

"It could potentially save you some trouble down the road," the department advised.

This story was reported from Los Angeles.