New Book Tells the Truth about Check Fraud

As technology improves, check fraud grows more sophisticated. When it comes to check fraud, consumers would be mistaken if they thought debit cards had made the practice obsolete. This new book tells the truth about check fraud and why its so easy!

Boca Raton, FL (PRWEB) March 11, 2006 -- When it comes to check fraud, consumers would be mistaken if they thought debit cards had made the practice obsolete. In fact, technology has made check fraud even more common. These days anybody can commit fraud using checking account and bank routing numbers – all of which can be found on every check and, for example, are often shared readily when customers enroll in direct deposit and direct payment programs online.

To protect themselves, consumers must become familiar with common check fraud schemes. In a new book, “The Truth About Check Fraud,” fraud expert Jay LaBonte outlines those schemes and presents tactics consumers can use to combat the fraud. "My hope is not just to show businesses and consumers how to protect themselves, but to educate people as to why criminals perform check fraud, and how truthly easy it is," LaBonte says.

Check fraud is everyone’s problem, and even more so since banks have successfully pushed for changes to the law that has shifted more of the responsibility of fraud to their customers.

According to Ernst & Young, more than 500 million checks are forged each year, with losses to businesses and individuals totaling more than $10 billion. Some industry experts predict that check fraud will grow by 12 to 15 percent annually in the next 12 years.

In many cases, these crimes start when a criminal steals a financial document, either by stealing a blank check during a burglary, searching for a canceled or old check in the garbage, or removing a check from a paid bill in the mailbox.

Criminals can use professional desktop publishing and copying technology to create realistic-looking checks as well as false identification that can be used to defraud their victims. Criminals also use chemical alteration to remove and manipulate some or all of a check’s information.

“People take checks for granted, and as a result they leave their checkbooks in the car or in plain sight on their desks at the office,” LaBonte says. “People have developed a false sense of security when it comes to checks. They feel check fraud is something that happens to other people.”

This book, "The Truth about Check Fraud" not only discusses how to protect yourself and your business from check fraud, but explores why check fraud is so easy, and how criminals can actually use the security features found on most checks, to their advantage in commiting their crimes.

For more information about “The Truth About Check Fraud,” contact Jay LaBonte by visiting www.jaylabonte.com.

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