Fraud Detection
Check fraud is growing 25 percent per year, with over 500 million forged checks deposited annually. Perpetrators of check fraud are continually looking for ways to outsmart the system and are becoming increasingly more savvy and creative.
Use our checklist of best practices and services to reduce your organization’s exposure to check, ACH and other forms of payments fraud.
Fraud Detection Best Practices and Services Checklist
1. Reconcile accounts every morning for ACH and check activity. Immediately report unauthorized activity to your Customer Service Representative.
2. Keep ACH debit activity in a single and separate account. Separating ACH from paper disbursements allows for more timely and focused review of ACH activity.
3. Add a “Post No Checks” restriction on electronic payments accounts.
4. Use a “Post No Debits” on depository or Zero Balance Accounts for deposits.
5. Separate disbursement and reconciliation staff duties.
6. Change Online Banking passwords regardless of how much everyone complains, and eliminate sticky notes with key passwords and control information.
7. Control access to payments processing areas.
8. Replace employee paychecks with Direct Deposit of Payroll.
9. Use Positive Pay to combat check fraud and ensure that only checks you have issued are paid through the check collection system. more
- You have the option to review and pay or return “suspect” items.
- Timely return of forged or altered checks saves you many times the cost of the service in potential losses and legal fees.
- Account reconciliation is simplified since all unmatched items are examined daily rather than just at month-end.
10. Add ACH Blocking to ensure that only those ACH transactions that you authorize post to your account. more
- Potential fraudulent activity may be prevented or identified earlier.
- Administrative expenses and clerical workload may be reduced.
- Authorized transactions are processed seamlessly.
- Expenses related to reconciling and recovering funds from unauthorized transactions are reduced.
11. Make sure that you have appropriate staff coverage when there are vacations and turnover.
Equal Housing Lender NMLS# 467014