Combat Check Fraud with a Better Pen
I recently heard a lecture by Frank W. Abagnale covering check fraud, among other scams. Mr. Abagnale’s name probably isn’t familiar to you, but his story may be. His nefarious exploits were made into the movie Catch Me If You Can, which starred Tom Hanks and Leonardo DiCaprio. Mr. Abagnale’s talk was interesting and informative, and I commend to you his website, www.abagnale.com, for more on the ingenuity of criminals and the dangers posed to your personal and business affairs. One of the things he said in his talk, though, I relate here because it is an easy and quick way to combat altered checks.
If a criminal is able to intercept a check you have written, he or she may be able to scrape, wash or lift off the amount of the check, or the payee, and substitute a different amount or payee, on a check that bears your real signature. That even holds true for checks printed through a computer, because the toner or ink can still be scraped, lifted or washed unless the check is printed upon special chemically coated paper. The fix is to write your checks using a common type of pen, the uni-ball® 207™ Gel Pen. The gel ink inside is made with pigments, instead of dyes. It adheres well and is nearly impossible to chemically wash away. The pen also is cheap and widely sold.
So, short of getting special secure checks, get a 207, and use it to write all of your checks. But for more on obtaining secure checks, though, go to www.safechecks.com or www.supercheck.net.