Why can’t someone just scan a copy of a check I gave them? Wouldn’t they have the ability to make unlimited checks?

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Don’t all checks include the same information on them? Why couldn’t someone make more checks in my name?

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Anonymous 0 Comments

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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