Payroll Services Can Provide Check Fraud Protection

Small business owners, have you ever been afraid of check fraud against your company due to a company issued payroll check?

Seattle, like most other major cities, has had a history of this problem.

If you have 10 employees that you pay with live checks twice a month. That's twenty pieces of paper out there with your bank account information (and signature) every month, just from payroll.

In their 2012 Report to the Nations, The Association for Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE) revealed a few key challenges...

"Check tampering was three times as common and payroll skimming schemes were noted almost twice as often in smaller organizations than in their larger counterparts"

"Most occupational fraudsters are first-time offenders with clean employment histories. Approximately 87% of occupational fraudsters had never been charged or convicted of a fraud-related offense, and 84% had never been punished or terminated by an employer for fraud-related conduct"

If you're worried, here's something to look into if you have to pay employees via check...

Most payroll services now offer a check fraud protection service whereby payroll checks are drawn off of the payroll services' bank account. The checks issued then have the payroll services' signature and bank account numbers on them instead of your company's.

The NFIB made some recommendations last year to reduce a businesses chances of experience payroll check fraud. #5, Positive Pay, is an additional service, with an additional cost, on the banking end - but your payroll services company may likely have a Check Fraud Protection Option...which you can also pair with the NFIB's recommendation #7, Direct Deposit.