Check Fraud & Forgery

1. The employee may steal a check that arrives in the employer's incoming mail, forge the endorsement of the employer-payee and deposit the check into his own account. Bank tellers often are not properly trained to compare the name of the payee to the account into which a check is being deposited. Fraudulent check activities are often perpetrated using automated teller machines (ATMs).
2. The employee may steal his employer's blank check, make it out to a fictitious payee and forge his employer's signature on the front of the check then forge the fictitious payee's endorsement on the back of the check and deposit the check into his own account (often an account opened by the dishonest employee in the name of the fictitious payee).
3. The employee may present a fraudulent invoice to an accounts payable clerk who then prepares a check that the employee takes, forges the endorsement of the payee, and deposits the check into his own bank account.Outside of an employment context, individuals entrusted with conducting banking transactions for an elderly or mentally compromised parent or other adult may steal funds from the bank accounts of the unsuspecting adult via check forgery or other fraudulent activities.

Usually, by the time he or she is caught, the thief in these instances has spent or hidden the money he or she has stolen. Therefore, the victim's recourse, if any, will be against the banks or credit unions that honored transactions involving forged checks or forged endorsements.