About the Author
Theodore "Ted" Jenkins
I am Ted. I write, therefore I am.
More than 13 fraudulent checks are written every second in America. This is more than 1.1 million checks every day, amounting to billions of dollars - by one estimate, as much as $50 billion in a year! With the criminals increasingly resorting to technology to commit check fraud, there is a need to hit back at them with technology. With a plethora of software available it is really difficult to assess which is the best check fraud software.
Check fraud comes in the forms of:
Forged Signatures – where legitimate blank checks are forged with an imitation of the payer’s signature.
Counterfeit Checks – which has been made easy by advancement in computer technology, vis-à-vis color copying and desktop publishing capabilities.
Altered Checks - where the information, such as payee or check amount on a legitimate check is changed to benefit the fraudster.
Check Kiting - where a check of one bank account is deposited into a second bank account without the sufficient funds to cover it.
It is one of the biggest challenges to banks, businesses, and financial institutions. Counterfeiting, which forms a significant part of check fraud, has been made easy with the advancement in computer technology. It has become easy to create and duplicate any financial document.
Check Fraud Detection Software
Banks are taking many steps to fight check fraud. Customer signatures have been scanned and stored by the banks, which can be displayed for online verification. A number of digital signature verification software are available for use with check images. There are trend analysis software to compare check characteristics with account history, within the bank’s fraud detection parameters.
There is a need to have an integrated check fraud software solution, which should incorporate cash management applications, and capabilities for detecting forgeries, counterfeiting and verification of signatures. Software based on Positive Pay programs can match data from checks presented for payment against the payers’ lists of issued checks. These check fraud detection software can detect altered checks by identifying changes to a check’s serial number, amount and account number, along with changes made to the payee’s name.
Software based on Reverse Positive Pay programs make use of pattern recognition technology that identifies changes in the check images, and further examinations are carried out. Software for check fraud should automatically examine all checks presented for payment against a file of images of checks that have been previously cleared.
The best check fraud software is the one that provides solutions to the banks and financial institution to meet their specific challenges.
Published by Theodore "Ted" Jenkins on June 12, 2006 10:43 AM
