Do You Take the Threat of Check Fraud Seriously?

According to a whitepaper developed by Troy Security Solutions a full 95% of business leaders state that checks are still their number one choice for making payments, yet most businesses do not have the proper solutions in place for check fraud prevention. With all the attention in the media on cyber security, 70% of those same business executives were concerned about cyber security risks, but only 10% cited concerns about check fraud. This shows a shocking lack of awareness of the prevalence of check fraud as 74% of organizations across the US experienced some form of check fraud in the last year.

Are you prepared?

Check fraud can occur in a variety of ways, from vendors or end users altering checks, to insider risks from employees misappropriating assets or tampering with checks. Unfortunately it's becoming easier due to lack of awareness and security measures by companies who believe digital technology is replacing checks and assume that means a decreased risk of check fraud. This is simply not the case.

So what can you do?

Citizens National Bank offers a program called Positive Pay which works with our Online for Business software. With this system, our customers are able to upload a file of all the checks they've written each day. Each check is then compared to the amount, payee, check number and account number of what's in that file and if anything appears to not match is flagged. The customer is able to review those flagged files and choose to accept or deny them, ensuring that the funds don't leave their account unless they've approved the exception. This system has saved some of our customers thousands of dollars in fraudulent checks over the past 2 years since we've offered the service. Bob Rhodes Company is enrolled in the service which recently prevented a loss of $806 from a single check that had been altered by having the check number and dollar amount changed by the recipient. "In a world where people can cash checks in multiple ways, Positive Pay protects us from fraud. Without much effort it saves our company thousands of dollars each year. Frankly, it's simple, it's effective and it's a no-brainer," states Roger Rhodes, co-owner of the company.

To learn more about Positive Pay, contact Treasury Management. Download the entire white paper from Troy Security Solutions.

 

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