According to Ed Lindsey, a detective in the bunco-forgery division of the Los Angeles Police Department, "fake checks are ëout of control.'" In California, the center of check counterfeiting activity, transactions involving fraudulent checks rose fivefold last year at Wells Fargo Bank alone. Now, before you think this is solely a California problem, you should know that Chemical Bank of New York reports a 50 percent increase in fraudulent checks so far this year.
The American Bankers Association says desktop publishing counterfeits are banks' number one crime problem. The proliferation of desktop publishing has created a new growth industry, the counterfeiting of virtually undetectable fraudulent checks. Banks and law enforcement officials say the cost to the economy could reach $2 billion this year.
Check fraud is a problem that continues to defy resolution. Despite the advent of new technologies, products, and services designed to thwart check fraud, companies that write checks, and banks that clear those items, continue to lose massive sums of money to fraud.
Bankers are particularly troubled by an increase in interest in desktop systems intended for use by corporations who print checks in-house, complete with magnetic ink character recognition (MICR) lines. Desktop MICR printers can now be purchased for as little as $5,000.
Criminals are feeding their computers images of good checks drawn on good accounts. They change the date, the name of the payee, and sometimes the check number, and make dozens of copies of the fake check on a laser printer loaded with magnetic ink and check paper that can be bought at most stationery stores.
