Laser Check Printers and the Business of Fraud

Checks that are printed with a laser check printer are embedded with many anti-fraud mechanisms to help deter fraud.

It is quite unfortunate to think that laser check printers can be used for fraud when one of the main reasons a business purchases a laser check printer is to deter against fraud.

Checks that are printed with a laser check printer are embedded with many anti-fraud mechanisms to help deter fraud. However, those who are looking to be fraudulent are also in business with laser check printers.

It’s true that laser check printers are quite expensive. In reality, for someone looking to commit a fraudulent check act, spending $1,000 on a good laser check printer will pay off a hundred fold in very little time. All it takes is a computer, a high-resolution digital scanner and a laser check printer and anyone can clean out bank accounts from even the largest of companies. This is becoming a huge problem.

Because laser check printers are such advanced technology, it can be extremely difficult to tell a ‘real check’ from a fake one. Anyone can purchase a laser check printer—whether you have a valid business or not. That fact alone is a huge part of the problem. All it takes is the initial outlay of cash and someone can be in the business of check fraud.

The outlay of cash initially is a small price to pay for someone looking to produce counterfeit checks. All it takes is for someone to get a hold of a company check and then scan it with a high resolution digital scanner. After scanning, the corporate information and signature information is easily digested from the scanned check into a program to create more, fraudulent checks. The alterations to the ‘scanned check’ image can be done using virtually any desktop software. The counterfeit check is then printed using a laser check printer and voila, instant cash on the go for any criminal wishing to embark on this path.

There is some relief—one company claims that their technology prints the serial number of each machine coded in tiny yellow dots which help track the documents that are printed on the laser check printer. This method could help shut down counterfeit check operations.

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