this post was submitted on 28 Aug 2023
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Suddenly? Nothing sudden about it been going around for years.
As for why it's because it's super easy and if someone gets one of your checks they have your full routing and account number on the bottom which can be easily used to make a fake one or initiate an ach or something. Since its old technology that for some reason banks refuse to update, you get a credit in your account within a few days of deposit while the actual account holder has time to notice they've been robbed or their bank has time to catch any obvious fake checks. In the meantime the fraudster is already free and clear with however many giftcards they got.
From the article:
[In 2022], banks issued about 680,000 reports of check fraud, nearly double what they reported in 2021. And one expert predicted total check fraud will hit $24 billion in losses this year, roughly twice what it was just five years ago.