Newly released Federal Trade Commission data show consumers reported losing more than $10 billion to fraud in 2023, marking a 14 percent increase over reported losses in 2022.
Fraud, simply put, is surging across the country, leaving massive financial losses and headaches for individuals and businesses in its wake.
Check fraud, one of the more common forms of financial crime because it’s so easy to execute, is one of financial institutions’ biggest challenges. That’s why Firstrust Bank, which sets the gold standard in the banking industry for the lengths it goes to protect customers, has launched a Security First campaign to educate them on their power to outsmart criminals and significantly enhance their financial safety.
In an effort to encourage customers to limit the use of checks in favor of digital and card payments, the bank recently released a video that illustrates the ease with which checks can be washed when they’re filled out with a ballpoint pen. Check washing is one of the oldest forms of check fraud, whereby scammers intercept checks in the mail and use common household chemicals to erase the dollar amount and payee information and write in their own.
Not using checks reduces the exposure of personal and banking information, which can easily be misused if checks fall into the wrong hands. Checks lack the advanced security features of digital transactions, such as encryption and real-time monitoring, making them more vulnerable to theft and alteration.
Wielding one of Firstrust Bank’s new SAFE 1NK pens can help you avoid becoming a victim of check fraud. The bank has made these pens available for instances when writing a check is unavoidable. Although no ink is fraud proof, SAFE 1NK pens use gel ink, which is less affected by the solvents and resists check washing.
Indeed, the pen can be mightier than the sword, but only if that pen is Firtrust’s SAFE 1NK.
SAFE 1NK pens can be picked up at any Firstrust Bank branch. They are the latest salvo in the fight to keep customers’ finances secure. Although Firstrust Bank takes every precaution to defend accounts and transactions from criminal activity, some of that responsibility falls into the customers’ hands. By making digital payments, mailing checks from inside the post office, and safely storing and disposing checks, we can all outsmart criminals and check washing.
In addition to tips to avoid check fraud, Firstrust Bank shares tactics in shielding your money from fraudulent emails, text messages, and phone calls at a time when A.I. technology is increasingly being used to perpetrate voice and video scams.
Learn more about how Firstrust Bank urges customers to remain vigilant against scammers.
