Fraud Protection
Guard Against Unauthorized Transactions
Fraudsters generally take the path of least resistance to swindle Americans out of their money.
Chip technology and digital wallets have made card fraud more difficult, so the thieves have turned back to a common and easy method of getting into your bank account – the paper trail left by checks.
Mail theft is running rampant. Once a thief has someone’s check there are several ways they can launch an attack against the victim’s bank account, and with today’s technology, fake checks can be almost impossible to spot.
Checks can be “washed” to change the payee and/or amount, then deposited or cashed; the account information can be sold on the underground market; the account number and routing transit information can be used to make purchases on the internet – the list goes on and on.
Positive Pay Helps Prevent Losses
Positive Pay is a very effective tool to prevent losses caused by fraudulent transactions posting to your company’s account.
There are two areas where Positive Pay can be used to monitor for fraud:
- Checks clearing the account
- Incoming ACH or EFT transactions
How does it work?
Check Positive Pay
A list of issued checks is uploaded by your company through Treasury Management Services (TMS). Check Positive Pay matches the information on checks clearing the account against the list of issued checks you uploaded. If the check amount, check number, and date match your list of issued checks, the checks clear the account normally. For added protection, the payee’s name can also be matched using positive pay.
If there isn’t an exact match, the checks are considered “exceptions” and images of the checks are routed through TMS to your company. Each day a designated person or department must review any incoming exceptions and decide whether the exceptions should be paid or returned unpaid.
ACH Positive Pay
Bank account numbers off a lost or stolen check can also be used to generate fraudulent electronic transactions to a company’s account.
Typically, ACH Positive Pay is used to monitor incoming debits to an account. Instead of sending a list of authorized transactions to the bank, a list of authorized originators is established in TMS. If an ACH entry is presented from an originator that is not on the authorized list, that entry is considered an exception and routed through TMS so your company can decide whether the entry is allowed to post to your account or not.
The list of authorized originators is managed by your company, so you can easily make any changes that occur in the normal course of business.
To learn more about Positive Pay, contact one of our Business Banking Centers and speak with a Business Banker.