Have you washed your checks today?

[Jagged]

I had no idea it was this easy to commit check fraud.

I'm not sure if it's informing others of how to protect themselves or how to actually commit the crime

Scary but interesting video....makes you wonder...

Those Uni-Ball 207 pens are sold everywhere...kmart, walmart, walgreens. I'm going to buy some today!!

YouTube - Stop Check Fraud with Uni-Ball 207

Anyone ever been a victim of this?

Good luck,
Ken

[Dan C. Rinnert]

Ancient news. But I never thought of putting old info like this in a video and using it to promote a product...

[seasoned]

Yeah, this is VERY old news! They may have done this for thousands of years. I heard of counterfieters that bleached low value currency, and printed HIGH valued currency. THAT is why they have the bands and watermarks now. And washing checks is the SAME way. They even had this on "catch me if you can"! And I doubt the uniball will stop it. MAYBE if there were computer systems that ran ONLY what YOU setup, and everyone understood how it worked, and things had to be authorized online, we could get rid of this. But just what I just mentioned could take DECADES to implement correctly. And the O/S I mentioned really doesn't exist. MAYBE if you had a unix system running NO open servers, and only SECURE software that handled null pointers right. FORGET windows, it is actually designed AGAINST the model I proposed.

Steve

[glchandler]

Yeah, this is VERY old news! They may have done this for thousands of years

Yep...long time practice. I worked in consumer finance in early 1970's and we had more than a few checks washed on loan payouts. Company did put in a few stop-gaps to slow it down.

My cynical self thinks that this type video only serves as a warning to those who perpetrate this type crime that they need to update their methods!

Old statement that locks only serve to keep the honest people out also seems to serve well here!

[seasoned]

Originally Posted by glchandler

Yep...long time practice. I worked in consumer finance in early 1970's and we had more than a few checks washed on loan payouts. Company did put in a few stop-gaps to slow it down.

My cynical self thinks that this type video only serves as a warning to those who perpetrate this type crime that they need to update their methods!

Old statement that locks only serve to keep the honest people out also seems to serve well here!

It is IRONIC that a couple methods the protagonist in "catch me if you can" used to detect phony checks no longer works! The type of paper, edges, and even the MICR are NO LONGER of any value! There used to be several SUBTLE things that weren't even security measures that helped detect bad checks. NOW, they are GONE! The BEST thing is probably the copy prevention, but THAT has holes!

AND, speaking about money, the US did something STUPID a few years back. They kept CHANGING the look and feel of the currency. They CLAIM it made forgery harder. Such a claim is LUDICROUS! What they did was give the counterfeiter several things to choose from. Some have NO real security measure. They ALSO got rid of familiarity with the dollars.

Steve