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Advanced Fraud Solutions

First in Fraud Defense

  • Who We Work With
        • WHO WE WORK WITH

        • Credit Unions
        • Half of the top 100 credit unions trust Advanced Fraud Solutions to serve as their omnichannel deposit fraud mitigation systems, protecting check, card and ACH.

        • Banks
        • Banks from $100 million to $100 billion rely on Advanced Fraud Solutions for their deposit fraud data, and to help them make real-time decisions on items.

        • Partners
        • Financial services hardware and software providers partner with Advanced Fraud Solutions because of their industry-leading fraud mitigation services and years of experience.

  • Solutions
        • SOLUTIONS

        • TrueChecks Logo
        • TrueChecks®
        • Despite falling check volume and usage, check fraud continues to rise. Our real-time deposit fraud detection software catches bad checks and reduces losses for banks and credit unions.

        • TrueCards Logo
        • TrueCards®
        • Learn about Advanced Fraud Solutions’ card fraud detection tools that use Dark Web sources to pinpoint at-risk cards in your debit and/or credit portfolio.

        • AFS Positive Pay Logo
        • Positive Pay by AFS
        • Learn about Advanced Fraud Solutions’ proactive check and ACH payment monitoring tool that helps financial institutions and businesses mitigate vendor and payroll fraud.

        • TrueACH® with Account Validation
        • Learn about Advanced Fraud Solutions’ ACH account validation tool that helps keep financial institutions in compliance and reduces faster payments fraud.

  • Insights
    • Check Fraud
          • 2022_Changing Landscape of Check Fraud
          • 2022: Changing Landscape Of Check Fraud

            Check fraud remains a pervasive issue. Banks and credit unions still cite check as a major fraud risk. Even despite a lower volume of checks in circulation, fraud… Download now>>

          • Check Fraud Remains a Significant Threat_300x123
          • Check Fraud Remains a Significant Threat

            Check fraud remains tenaciously persistent. Fraudsters continue to take advantage of access to inexpensive technology, social engineering tactics, and remote business practices to engage in illegal and deceptive check fraud schemes. Read now>>

          • Advanced Fraud Solutions Appoints Jordan Bothwell to Vice President of Strategic Partnerships_300x123
          • Advanced Fraud Solutions Appoints Jordan Bothwell to Vice President of Strategic Partnerships

            Advanced Fraud Solutions announced the appointment of Jordan Bothwell to Vice President of Strategic Partnerships. Jordan joins the position following a decade of experience in fraud prevention and… Read now>>

    • Card Fraud
          • Shedding Light On The Dark Web
          • Shedding Light On The Dark Web

            The Dark Web is home to many of the fraudsters targeting credit unions and banks. In this webinar, hosted by Q6 Cyber and Advanced Fraud Solutions, we will venture into the Dark Web (back by popular demand!) and profile the latest trends in financial fraud and cybercrime. Watch now>>

          • Advanced Fraud Solutions Adds Enhancements To TrueCards Platform
          • Advanced Fraud Solutions Adds Enhancements To TrueCards Platform

            Advanced Fraud Solutions (AFS), a leader in deposit fraud detection software, today announced updates to the TrueCards® platform, AFS’ omnichannel debit and credit card fraud prevention solution. Read more>>

          • Beating BIN Attacks: How To Protect Against Card-Not-Present Fraud
          • Beating BIN Attacks: How To Protect Against Card-Not-Present Fraud

            Card-not-present fraud (CNP) continues to flourish. In fact, there’s been a 25% increase in exposed CNP records, a total of 45 million, since 2019. Download now>>

    • ACH Fraud
      • Protecting ACH Payments_2022
      • Advanced Fraud Solutions Announces New Account Validation Tool to Address Nacha’s WEB Debit Account Validation Rule
      • How Financial Institutions Can Manage ACH Risk_300x123
      • Protecting ACH Payments

        How do financial institutions, who increasingly rely on ACH, safeguard faster payments and stay in compliance with Nacha? AFS’ new report issues related to fraud and compliance have also become top-of-mind for financial institutions.  Download now>>

      • AFS Announces New Account Validation Tool to Address Nacha’s WEB Debit Account Validation Rule

        AFS announced TrueACH® with Account Validation – a new ACH tool that enables financial institutions to confirm account status and authorized user(s). TrueACH with Account Validation was developed in response to Nacha’s WEB Debit Account Validation Rule, which requires financial institutions to apply a “commercially reasonable… Read more>>

      • How Financial Institutions Can Manage ACH Risk

        Financial institutions increasingly rely on the ACH Network to facilitate transactions. With that comes a responsibility to manage ACH risk, including helping to prevent fraudulent payments and mitigate any potential losses. Read more>>

    • Positive Pay
      • Fighting Fraud: How To Secure Business Accounts Against The Latest Fraud Tactics, Threats
      • Advanced Fraud Solutions Announces New Positive Pay Solution To Help Financial Institutions Fight Vendor Fraud
      • Looking Out For Payroll And Vendor Fraud: A Financial Institution's Guide
      • Fighting Fraud: How To Secure Business Accounts Against The Latest Fraud Tactics, Threats

        Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, fraud operators have capitalized on the behavioral shifts of workers and consumers, as well as the migration of payments online and the massive increase in PPP loans, stimulus checks, and expansion of unemployment benefits. Watch now>>

      • Advanced Fraud Solutions Announces New Positive Pay Solution To Help Financial Institutions Fight Vendor Fraud

        Advanced Fraud Solutions (AFS), a leading provider of deposit fraud detection software, today announced the launch of AFS Positive Pay – a positive pay solution designed so that financial institutions, and their enterprise customers, can proactively monitor changes in payments information. Read now>>

      • Looking Out For Payroll And Vendor Fraud: A Financial Institution’s Guide

        A financial institution’s guide to protecting business accounts from payment tampering, redirection, and business e-mail compromise. Download Now>>

    • Consumer Scams
      • Beware Of Mobile Deposit Scams
      • Romance Scams On The Rise: How Fraud Operators Exploit The Rise Of Online Dating In A Socially-Distant World
      • Four Dangerous Stimulus Scams
      • Beware Of Mobile Deposit Scams

        According to the FBI, there has been a 50% surge in mobile banking since the beginning of 2020. Download now>>

      • Romance Scams On The Rise: How Fraud Operators Exploit The Rise Of Online Dating In A Socially-Distant World

        The rise in online dating sites, coupled with the onset of social distancing in 2020, have helped make personal loneliness a target for virtual con artists. Download now>>

      • Four Dangerous Stimulus Scams

        Reports of stimulus payment-related fraud have sharply increased following the passage of the second stimulus package. Read now>>

    • Business Banking
      • Looking Out For Payroll And Vendor Fraud: A Financial Institution’s Guide
      • Protecting Business Accounts Against Fraud
      • How Banks And Credit Unions Can Build A Culture To Fight Fraud
      • Looking Out For Payroll And Vendor Fraud: A Financial Institution’s Guide

        A financial institution’s guide to protecting business accounts from payment tampering, redirection, and business e-mail compromise. Download Now>>

      • Protect Business Accounts Against Fraud

        For businesses, trust in their financial institution is paramount. But with so many businesses under attack from fraud operators, where do they turn? In this webinar, the AFS fraud experts explore the latest fraud tactics — including BEC, vendor and payroll fraud — being deployed against businesses… Watch now>>

      • How Banks And Credit Unions Can Build A Culture To Fight Fraud

        Among all the things we train our customers on here at AFS, teaching them the tips and tricks of catching deposit fraud is one of the most important. Read now>>

    • Webinars
      • ACH Payments: Preventing Fraud, Addressing Compliance

        Join AFS experts as they discuss the latest threats to faster payments; how to best safeguard ACH transitions; and what measures banks and credit unions can take to meet Nacha’s account validation requirements. Download Now>>

      • Protect Business Accounts Against Fraud

        In this webinar, the fraud experts at Advanced Fraud Solutions will explore the latest fraud tactics — including business email compromise, vendor and payroll fraud — being deployed against businesses and what financial institutions can do to help businesses proactively identify fraud, mitigate their losses and protect mobile deposits. Download Now>>

      • AFS Presents: Check Fraud Prevention 2021

        Fake check scams cases spiked in 2020. Fraud operators spied opportunities to accelerate their attacks and profit off of romance scams, secret shopper scams, unemployment scams and other fraud schemes. Download now>>

    • White Papers
      • The Changing Landscape Of Check Fraud

        In 2020, check fraud was down, due in part to branch closings and the migration to digital payment methods. Download now>>

      • Beating BIN Attacks: How To Protect Against Card-Not-Present Fraud

        Card-not-present fraud (CNP) continues to flourish. In fact, there’s been a 25% increase in exposed CNP records, a total of 45 million, since 2019. Download now>>

      • Protecting ACH Payments

        How do financial institutions, who increasingly rely on ACH, safeguard faster payments and stay in compliance with Nacha? AFS’ new report issues related to fraud and compliance have also become top-of-mind for financial institutions.  Download now>>

  • About AFS
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  • Schedule a Demo
Common Types Of Check Fraud And Scams

Common Types Of Check Fraud And Scams

One of the largest challenges facing financial institutions is check fraud. It is actually the most common form of financial crime simply because it’s so easy to execute. Despite the advent of electronic payment products, check fraud accounts for billions of dollars in losses each year, making this tactic a prime target for fraudsters. The main types of check fraud include forged, altered, and counterfeit checks.

The ease of creating counterfeit items and the financial system’s lack of a comprehensive fraud database to spot the fraudulent items makes it all too easy for criminals to get away with scamming the system. That is why fraud prevention solutions like TrueChecks® are so critical. At Advanced Fraud Solutions, we are committed to continually adding new streams of fraudulent information into our database to combat this growing problem for banks, credit unions, and merchants nationwide.

Learn more about TrueChecks

Fraud detection in banking

Forged checks are where the stolen check does not contain the original signature of the account holder. Counterfeit checks are when the check is not authorized by the legitimate account holder. An altered check may be one genuinely issued by the account holder, but certain details, i.e. the amount, are changed. 

The most common types of check fraud scenarios 

There are many variations of scams.  Scammers can use any pitch and still sound believable. They could even offer to pay you to work from the comfort of your home.  This type of scam is intended to draw in unsuspecting people to cash bad checks for them. 

Scammers will also go to the extent of calling or sending emails to random people hoping to catch some unsuspecting consumers in their trap.  Once the target has been secured, the fraudster jumps into action, claiming to be in a far away country and needing someone in the U.S. to transfer the money using a check.  Some will even sweeten the pot and send the victim a check worth more money than is needed and request the extra cash be wired back. U.S. based counterfeiters also try their hand at these scams, using local stay-at-home moms or other individuals looking for part-time work to help in their check cashing schemes. 

The problem is that often the checks look so real that even tellers can fall prey.  High turnover at the teller line is problematic. Keeping tellers long enough to gain the experience to spot a fraudulent items is a struggle. No matter how much training tellers receive, counterfeit checks are often very believable, which makes TrueChecks® all the more important. The ability to scan and run each check against the TrueChecks® database to get the real picture of the account holder’s status and to make sure all information on the check is accurate before it’s cashed, is critical to loss avoidance for financial institutions and merchants.

Here are three common types of check fraud scams: 

Excess of Purchase Price

The buyer “mistakenly” sends a check for more than is expected and asks the victim to return the extra cash. Weeks later, the financial institution discovers the check was fraudulent and you have to pay for the whole amount. 

Sold Goods

A buyer in a different country pays for the goods you are selling and asks you to ship them. The check never clears and you are left to foot the bill.  This is one of the most common types of check fraud scams.

Surprise Bonanzas

The victim may be informed that you won a lottery or a contest affiliated with a legitimate-sounding organization. However, the victim must first pay a fee such as for the transfer tax to be processed. The organization is “thoughtful” enough to enclose a check designed to cover that tax fee. When the victim deposits the check, it bounces. Not only did the victim not win a lottery, but he or she must now pay costly fees.

Simple Check Fraud Prevention Techniques 

Understand that criminals have become extremely skilled. It no longer takes a highly sophisticated criminal to defraud a financial institution.  Advanced technology and institutions’ attention to other areas of fraud have made traditional fraudulent checks more appealing to criminals. A decent printer and a good account number are all it takes for criminals to win and you to lose.

Advanced Fraud Solutions has real-time, private cloud-based fraud detection software that stops fraudulent deposits before they can impact your financial institution. For over ten years, AFS has continued to build upon and expand the reach of the TrueChecks® database to become the most comprehensive source of bad check data available to financial institutions today. Learn more about TrueChecks® now by requesting a free demo. If check deposits are already covered – explore the options to also prevent fraud across your ACH and card portfolios. 

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Learn how our powerful fraud prevention tools mitigate losses from check, card, or online banking transactions for banks and credit unions nationwide.

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  • Who We Work With
    • Credit Unions
    • Banks
    • Partners
  • Solutions
    • TrueChecks®
    • TrueCards®
    • Positive Pay by AFS
    • TrueACH® with Account Validation
  • Insights
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    • Articles
    • White Papers
    • Webinars
  • About AFS
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