Businesses Should “Check That Check”

In exchange for a fee and some personal information, thieves are giving people “instructions” on how to use bank account and routing numbers that do not belong to them to pay their bills online, or print checks so they can make payments in person or by mail. In one scheme, scammers are using a variation on the “free money from the government” fraud. They tell people to use the routing number of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta — 0610-0014-6 — to make checks and electronic payments through the Automated Clearinghouse (ACH) Network. (By the way, that number is no longer valid.)

If clients get an ACH payment, check, cashier’s check, or certified check with that routing number, they should look into it. Checks with that number are not valid payment instruments. If they take one, they run the risk of not getting paid. So what should clients do? Do not accept the check — and notify the authorities immediately: the state’s Attorney General, the local office of the FBI, and their bank.

What else can clients do to protect their businesses from fake check rip-offs? They can train their staffs to watch for warning signs that a paper check might be counterfeit, including:

-no perforated edge on one side of the paper;

-the absence of security features, like a watermark;

-a routing number with fewer than nine digits;

-a bank address on the check that does not match its real address; and

-a flimsy feeling to the paper.