Pub. 1 2012 Issue 8

called her husband who called the plant manager who confirmed there was no special payroll this week. The plant manager called the bank. It was then discovered that these checks were forged. The blank checks had been stolen during the break-in. They were taken from the bottom of the blank checks and had not been noticed as missing. Similar losses have happened over and over again at banks across the nation for several years. It is not one group of people, but is a method of theft by forgery that is often used by groups of transient workers. Sometimes stolen blank checks are used. Sometimes, a worker’s legiti - mate check is scanned on a computer and look-a-like checks are printed. When multiple people cash the forged checks at multiple branches over multiple days, the loss to the bank can reach well over $100,000.00. When a careful teller questions one of the checks, the crooks run from the bank often leaving some checks and identification behind. On occa - sion when law enforcement does catch one or more of the crooks, their story is that they were given the checks to cash and they were to keep some of the money and give most of the money to the person who gave them the checks. This is a difficult kind of forgery loss to stop without help from customers. Many A LARGE LOCAL EMPLOYER IN A SMALL TOWN had its office burglarized. Nothing appeared to be taken but there was some vandalism. The company assumed it was just some kids. A few days later, on a late Friday afternoon, a group of about twenty people with heavy accents came into the local bank and cashed payroll checks drawn on the local employer. The group went to all five branches of the bank, each person cashing a payroll check in the nine hundred dollar range at each branch. The tellers verified that funds were in the account and verified identification of the payees before cashing the checks. On Saturday, the same twenty people went back to each of the bank branches again cashing more checks. A teller, whose husband worked for the business, questioned why they were being paid this week when her husband’s normal payroll was not until the following week. She 10 l e a d i n g a d v o c a t e f o r t h e b a n k i n g i n d u s t r y i n k a n s a s continued on page 12 SECURITY OFFICER’S BY-WORD FORGED CHECK LOSSES AND POSITIVE PAY Charles M. Towle, Senior Vice President, Kansas Bankers Surety Company When multiple people cash the forged checks at multiple branches over multiple days, the loss to the bank can reach well over $100,000.00.