Don’t all checks include the same information on them? Why couldn’t someone make more checks in my name?
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Different checks have different serial numbers (I don’t exactly know what the number is called, but they are numbered.)
They bank should notice that they are not processing multiple separate checks, but multiple identical checks.
Someone absolutely could. The thing is–why would they? What are they going to do with the checks? Walk into a bank and cash one, on camera, and then likely end up in jail and having a criminal record? Why would someone smart enough to be able to forge your checks be dumb enough to take such a risk for what is likely very-limited gain? Even if you’re going to break the law by trying to steal, there are certainly less-risky ways to do it.
Fraudulent checks are common, and checks can be returned for this reason. Duplicate check deposits are also common for non-fraudulent reasons, such as accidentally remotely depositing the same check twice. This may be caught by safeguards that compare check numbers, images, amounts, and payees, as well as vigilant bank employees.
To attempt to cash a fraudulent check in-person is a bold move that safeguards such as ID-checking, fingerprinting, customer callback, check verification, security cameras, and policies of not cashing checks for non-customers help mitigate. Often, fraudulent checks will be used instead to scam unsuspecting payees into depositing the check and then transferring a portion of the funds to the fraudster by wire. By the time the check is rejected as fraud, the fraudster has cashed out.
One form of this is the remote employment scam. A fraudster poses as an employer, pretends to interview and hire the victim for a remote job (usually with salary and terms too good to be true), then sends them a fake check as their initial paycheck or for the purchase of some job-related supplies. Shortly afterward, they tell the victim the check was written for too much and ask for some or all of the funds back. Fake check goes into victim’s account. Real funds come out and go to the fraudster. In this way, they don’t have to count on fooling the banking system, just the victim.
>Don’t all checks include the same information on them? Why couldn’t someone make more checks in my name?
They could. And it is very easy to do, with the right knowledge and tools. There are a few things that would need to be changed each time.
Hopefully you are using your banks alerts system so you are notified for every withdrawal, so you should be able to spot the first forged check right away and dispute it with your bank immediately.
I know how easy it is because years ago when mobile deposits were just coming out I was regularly writing checks from my business account to myself. One day I scanned one, and from then on just made the needed changes to it on my PC. Once changed I used my phone to do the mobile deposit of the image from the PC screen. I never again wrote another paper check to myself from the business, and never had any problems with any of those deposits.
Granted, these were legitimate payments so of course my business never disputed any of them. 🙂
BTW, today’s bill pay systems offered by banks are so much better than the old “the checks in the mail” days.
Checks have all kinds of safety features built into them. They have elaborate designs and patterns on them that are meant to defeat scanners/photocopiers. (The design is too intricate for the hardware to pick up the detail.) They’re printed with magnetic ink so they could be read by the old-school magnetic check readers. The numbers at the bottom of the check are the branch number, the transit number, and the account number the check is written on. Those are in magnetic ink.
Those are features that make physically copying a check very difficult. You’d need a very high resolution color scanner and color laser printer to duplicate the base check, something that can print the magnetic font for the account details, and then you need to get it all past the bank’s fraudulent check detection.
So ya, technically people can duplicate checks and many try, but it’s the banks who end up paying when the crooks are successful, so the banks are pretty diligent in trying to prevent them from being successful.
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