The Cooperative Credit Union Association said Oct. 25 at least four credit unions have reported an increase in counterfeit corporate checks.
The Marlborough, Mass.-based trade group, which represents nearly 200 credit unions in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Delaware, said two Boston-based credit unions and a cooperative in Rhode Island and in New Hampshire reported "an uptick in counterfeit corporate checks."
"The checks are reported to be very similar to actual corporate checks used by credit unions and are being distributed in other areas of the country including Georgia, California, Colorado, Nevada and North Carolina," the Cooperative association's newsletter, Daily Credit Union Scan, reported. "The check sequence numbers are numbers currently in use by these credit unions and the earliest occurrence of activity dates back to October."
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The Cooperative association did not identify the credit unions, how many fake corporate checks may have been in circulation or the total dollar amount of the counterfeit checks.
The Cooperative association suggested credit unions follow CUNA Mutual Group's risk mitigation steps such as training staff, especially front-line staff, to recognize counterfeit checks and take special note of out-of-state treasurer's or cashier's checks; implement policies and procedures to validate and verify checks; perform periodic training and audits to verify tellers are complying with check hold and check cashing policies and procedures, and implement a validation process. For example, before accepting a check, validate the check with the paying institution, use a telephone number of record, not the number on the document, and ask for the check fraud department. It should be noted, however, that some institutions no longer support this verification method.
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