The Observer’s crime reports often feature scams. Somebody seems to be constantly finding new ways to fool people out of their money.

The threatening phone call from the IRS? That’s probably not the IRS.

The million-dollar lottery win? Not if you didn’t enter.

Someone sends you a check and wants you to send part of it back? Why didn’t they keep that part of the money in the first place?

Computers have made it even worse, since amateurs can make a professional-looking website or email that can persuade recipients to send them cash, bank account numbers or other personal information the scammers can use to steal money.

With the beginning of 2020, CNN has found yet another way a scammer can get to you — no computer required. And it can continue to threaten you for the next 80 years.

How do you write the date on your checks and legal documents? Maybe you spell it out — January 8, 2020 — that’s a good way. Or abbreviate it with numbers — 1/8/2020 — that works.

But if you abbreviate it further — 1/8/20 — you’ve just opened the door to a scammer. Because now, with a simple ink pen, the scammer can make that check or contract valid whenever he wants it to be, Ira Rheingold, executive director for the National Association of Consumer Advocates, told CNN’s Harmeet Kaur.

Say you write a check today and date it 1/8/20. For whatever reason it’s never cashed. It expires after six months, and that money’s still in your account. Someone finds it next year — maybe even in your trash — and writes a “21” at the end. Now the date reads 1/8/2021 and suddenly that’s a valid check again.

And the danger works in reverse too, according to the CNN story. For example, you sign a credit contract — an agreement between a borrower and a lender — and date it 1/8/20. 

“Say you then miss a month or two of payments, and the lender goes to collect the debt that’s owed,” the CNN story reads. “Theoretically, they could add ’19’ to the end of that date and argue that you owe more than a year’s worth of payments, Rheingold said.” 

And since the year could be set for anything from 2000 through 2099, the opportunity for mischief won’t end until after the start of 2100.

Spelling out the year takes only an additional two digits, but it’s a simple way to help prevent one kind of fraud.

If only all scams could be thwarted that easily …