Living in a digital society, as we do, it might’ve been a while (maybe never?) since you’ve sat down to a write a paper check to pay your bills. Or maybe, when you were a kid, you had a grandparent who would send you a $20 check – in the mail – as a gift for your birthday.

Regardless of the reason, as a recent article in the Wall Street Journal noted, “Americans can’t quit paper checks. Fraudsters are cashing in”. By the numbers, according to the U.S. Treasury Department, check fraud has increased nationwide by 385 percent since the pandemic.

In fact, in 2023, the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta noted that in 2021, the U.S. wrote about 30 checks per capita, but about half of the checks used were estimated to be written by businesses, meaning the average American consumer wrote about 15 checks per year. Even so, the volume of checks that were written was 11.2 billion.

What’s more, cybercriminals are not only using different methods to try and run these scams, but they’re also sharing or exchanging information related to how they’re doing it with others using messaging apps and social media platforms.

One of the more common methods that is used involves stealing a check from someone’s mailbox and they use a mix of household chemicals to “wash out” the amount and the recipient; writing in its place the name of the account they plan to access. From there, the checks are often deposited at an ATM to try and get around the process of a bank being able to confirm that the check is legitimate before releasing the funds.

In response, the U.S. Treasury’s Office of Payment Integrity (OPI) recently implemented an enhanced process using artificial intelligence (AI) to mitigate check fraud in near real-time by strengthening and expediting the processes to recover potentially fraudulent payments from financial institutions. Already, in 2024, using some of these newly developed AI tools – aimed at preventing fraudsters and bad actors from accessing government funds – prevented and recovered more than $4 billion in fraudulent and improper payments.

Fortunately, as banks, law enforcement, and the postal service continue in their efforts to make paper checks more secure, there are several important steps you can take to help ensure that your check isn’t involved in a scam that include:

• Setting up direct deposit for incoming payments such as your payroll check, or any type of payout related to a benefit – i.e. social security, disability or an insurance payout.
• Using alerts to let you know anytime a check clears your account. Some systems don’t intuitively say “alert” on a check, but you may be able to work with your bank or financial institution to craft the alert for when the description includes a check number.
• If you run a business that relies heavily on checks, speak with a representative from your financial institution about a feature called “positive pay”. This is a feature where the business uploads a list of check numbers and amounts that have been written to their bank and the bank will flag, or outright reject the transaction if the check number and the amount don’t match.

There’s also some more practical things you can do to protect yourself from check fraud, including:

• Use the right type of pen. Pigment-based (as opposed to dye-based) inks are harder to remove with readily available chemicals. Look for black or nonerasable gel ink, which soaks into the paper and is more difficult to remove than the ink from your typical ballpoint pen.
• Go to the post office. Don't leave outgoing checks in your curbside mailbox or other unsecured areas. Instead, drop them in a secure USPS collection box or the mail slot inside the post office.
• Monitor your payments. When you send checks, confirm they've arrived at their intended destination. If a check appears to have gone missing, contact your bank right away to request a stop payment order. If a forged check has cleared your account, quick action is even more critical: Report the fraud to your bank so it can investigate and credit the stolen funds back to you.

Of course, as we look to keep our personal and financial information secure, it’s important to keep in mind that no payment method is completely without risk.

That being said, most regular monthly payments can be paid from your checking account without a fee. Or you can also consider using digital payment methods, such as Venmo, Cash App, Apple Pay or Google Pay, or Zelle. Each of these apps rely on using a unique email address, phone number, or username to identify the recipient.

You can also work with your financial institution to arrange for a bank wire transfer or intra-bank transfer, or, using cash, you can purchase a money order, a cashier’s check, or set up what is known as ACH payments using a digital check.

Whether you’re at home, or managing a business, no one likes to pay bills, but that doesn’t mean that we want to fall victim to a scam or miss out making a kid’s day with a gift that we’re thinking about them!