Wake County Woman Charged in Mail Theft, Check Alteration Fraud Scheme

Rayna Gibson, 25, of Kinston faces six criminal charges after Wake County deputies connected her to two separate mailbox larcenies in February in which victims' mailed checks were altered to show a different payee name and a larger dollar amount. In both incidents, the substituted name on the altered checks was identical, a detail that helped investigators tie the cases together.

The Wake County Sheriff's Office charged Gibson with two counts of forgery of an instrument, two counts of uttering a forged instrument, and two counts of obtaining property by false pretense. Warrants indicate that Garner and Clayton police had also charged Gibson in February for the same offenses. She is currently being held at the Durham County Detention Center on unrelated charges.

Gibson's case is part of a broader pattern of mail theft and check fraud that Wake County deputies have been investigating since September 2025. On September 10 of that year, a resident in northern Wake County reported that two checks she placed in the mail were altered and deposited into an unknown bank account. A second victim came forward November 9, 2025, reporting that a check he mailed had similarly been deposited into an unfamiliar account.

The investigation expanded in December when Pitt County Sheriff's Office investigators contacted Wake County deputies after locating checks during a search warrant that contained the personal information of a Wake County resident. That discovery helped link multiple incidents across jurisdictions.

Following a months-long investigation, Wake County deputies arrested Geniya Dickens, 23, and Tahagi Brown, 21. Dickens faces 12 counts of felony larceny of chose in action, two counts of forgery of an instrument, two counts of uttering a forged instrument, one count of attempt to obtain property by false pretense, and one count of felony conspiracy. Brown was charged with one count of felony conspiracy. After the arrests of Dickens and Brown, a follow-up investigation identified two additional victims connected to the scheme.

The sources reviewed do not explicitly confirm whether Gibson is part of the same investigation that produced the Dickens and Brown arrests, and the sheriff's office has not publicly stated a connection between the three defendants.

Sheriff Willie Rowe described the scope of the work his office put into the case. "This five-month-long investigation highlights the diligent work by our investigators," Rowe said. "Our office takes fraud and financial crimes seriously, as they can have significant financial and emotional impacts on victims. We encourage residents to report suspicious activity as soon as possible."

The investigation remains ongoing, and the Wake County Sheriff's Office said no additional information has been released at this time.