OrboGraph Survey Indicates Increase in Check Fraud Attempts and Losses in 2020
- OrboGraph's Exploration of Check Fraud in 2020 is available now
- The report shows on-us check fraud attempts increasing
- Community bank report fewer fraud attempt than mid to large banks
OrboGraph's Exploration of Check Fraud in 2020 is a compendium of data gathered from a short, focused survey which was designed to "take a snapshot” of check fraud trends for 2020.
This survey was delivered to financial institutions that include small community, regional, and large US banks. We designed questions to identify trends involving check fraud attempts and losses for both on-us and deposit fraud. Each question was tabulated with overall totals as well as cross-tabulated by size of organization.
Weighted Scoring as a Fraud Indicator
A “Weighted Score” was calculated as an indicator of a fraud trend. The higher the number of the weighted score, the greater indication of an increase in fraud attempts or losses, while a number near zero or negative number indicates a decline. Below is the weighted scale:
- Significant Increase (More than +15%) = +2
- Modest Increase (+5% to +14%) = +1
- Stay the Same (-4% to +4%) = 0
- Modest Decline (-5% to -14%) = -1
- Significant Decline (More than -15%) = -2
Highlights from the Report
Responses to the Exploration of Check Fraud in 2020 survey are not large enough to be statistically significant. However, as the visuals seen below show, the is clearly a significant increase related to on-us check fraud attempts vs losses:
On-us Check Fraud Attempts Weighted Score: 19
Indicates a significant increase in on-us check fraud attempts from 2018 to 2020.
On-Us Check Fraud Losses Weighted Score: 4
Indicates a modest-to-significant increase in on-us check fraud attempts from 2018 to 2020.
For deposit fraud, we can see that the respondents are more balanced, although attempts are still increasing more than declines:
Deposit Check Fraud Attempts Weighted Score: 10
Indicates a significant increase in deposit check fraud attempts from 2018 to 2020.
Deposit Check Fraud Losses Weighted Score: 6
Indicates a modest-to-significant increase in deposit check fraud attempts from 2018 to 2020.
Report Conclusions
Trends from our survey respondents indicated the following:
- On-us check fraud attempts: significant increase
- Deposit check fraud attempts: modest-to-significant increase
- On-us check fraud losses: low-to-modest increase
- Community banks seeing stable or reduction in losses
- 5-20B and 21-100B seeing modest increases
- Deposit check fraud losses: modest increase
- Community banks seeing stable or reduction in losses
- 5-20B and 21-100B seeing modest increases
- Community bank responses are generally experiencing less fraud attempts then mid to large banks
To download a copy of the report, please click here.