Industry News – Check

As seen in the above video, scammers representing themselves as officials of government agencies is a common tactic. Victims are caught off-guard by the scammer’s aggressive tone and threats of legal repercussions, raising the victim’s anxiety and clouding their judgement to extract money from them. The scammers have adopted a new angle, utilizing the pandemic to their advantage.

It is important to understand that while check fraud is a significant problem in the US, similar trends are occurring in Europe as well. In Europe, there was a shared view of paper checks as a payment vehicle on the road to the junkyard years ago — only to find out that it remains a popular payment method in many countries.

During 2019, more than 1.9 million consumers cashed FTC checks received as a result of law enforcement cases. When consumers don’t cash their refund checks, the FTC uses that money to send additional mailings to ensure the maximum amount of money is returned to consumers. Any remaining refund money is sent to the U.S. Treasury.