<prompt> Human: Hey guys - longtime user on this sub, but I have a new problem I wanted to get your feedback on from a burner account, for privacyanonymity reasons.Background: my brother-in-law rents a room in our house and he is NOT the most financially savvy person borderline learning disability. He works part-time fast food and is almost always broke. In the past I have intervened to pull him out of crazy Craigslist scams i.e. cash this 10,000 check and Western Union me 5000 and keep the change types.While checking the mailbox last week I found an envelope from the US Treasury Bureau of Fiscal Service with a 500 US Treasury check made out to him. The check is legitimate, it has all the proper water marks and security features. The strange part was there was no accompanying letter or checkstub with it, just the check by itself in the envelope with no notes on it either. My mind immediately went to scam, but below are some other plausible explanations I came up with.Tax Refund - he already got his in April bought a Playstation, but it could an adjustment for a previous year? I feel like we would have gotten a notice from the IRS if that was the case.SSDI - he is in the process of applying for disability, although was denied and currently undergoing appeal waiting for a court appointment with judge. He wants to go cash it and swears he wasnt involved in any scam, but I am holding it hostage until we get to the bottom of why he received it. Not totally ethical, I know, but my wife and I are essentially his caregivers and I dont want any drama when it turns out it was a scam that he signed up for. I told him to call the IRS, still waiting for the results of that call. I tried looking it up on the Bureau of Finance website but not having much luck looking up a specific check. Any other thoughts out there in the reddit universe about what it could be? TL;DR - my brother-in-law got a US Treasury check for 500 with no other info and we dont know where it came from. Any thoughts?  <response>: According to this Treasury Check verification document the check should have a memo field. Does yours? Does it say anything?There is also a Why did I get this check FAQ page. 