Prevent Check & Invoice Fraud in Your Business Mail

Millions of Americans send letters, gifts, and checks through the U.S. postal system every day. Unfortunately, scammers use this system for check fraud, which can cost your business, employees, and customers thousands of dollars. Scammers steal checks from the mail, change the recipients’ names, and increase the posted amounts to withdraw large sums of money. They even clear off business checks and sell blank copies on the dark web. Mitigating check fraud can be intimidating, but there are multiple ways to reduce your business’s risk!

How These Scams Work

• Overpayment & refund schemes. A fraudster posing as your vendor sends a check for more than the invoice amount, then asks you to refund the “excess” via wire or ACH.
• Check washing. Thieves steal incoming or outgoing checks, use chemicals to erase the payee or amount, then rewrite them to themselves or inflate the value the end of each business day. And watch your business’s financial accounts for large withdrawals and deposits.
• Counterfeit invoices. Scammers create invoices that look identical to your regular vendors’—complete with logos and “official” remittance slips—only the bank details have been altered.
• Mail diversion & dumpster diving. Criminals reroute your mail or rummage through discarded documents to grab check stock and invoice copies for later fraud attempts.
• Phantom vendor schemes. Fraudsters set up fake vendor profiles in your billing system, then submit and approve bogus invoices under the radar.

How to Protect Your Business

• Hold weekend mail delivery. Most checks are stolen from a business’s mail when the company is closed on the weekend. Contact your local post office and request that mail not be delivered on Saturday or Sunday.
• Keep track of your mail. Ensure your outgoing mail is taken and your incoming mail brought in before the end of each business day. And watch your business’s financial accounts for large withdrawals and deposits.
• Enroll in online transactions. Whether you’re paying your employees or vendors or receiving checks from your customers, ACH payments is a great solution to mail fraud. By automating payments through the Automated Clearing House, money is transferred paperlessly between financial institutions. Having no paper check means no check gets stolen from the mail.
• Enroll in fraud protection. Horizon Bank is proud to offer fraud protection services help detect fraud early and correct it quickly.
• Secure your checks. Secure checks include watermarks, tamper-resistant toner areas, and security coating that alert the bank if a check has been tampered with. Order your business’s secure checks today!

Horizon is proud to offer Sensible Advice for all of our business partners. Contact your business advisor at 888-873-2640.

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