Scam Detectors Podcast: The History of Check Fraud is as Old as Checks
- The episode unpacks modern check fraud, blending old-school scams with advanced AI deception
- A real-world victim story shows how creative freelancers are targeted through “dream” jobs
- Overpayment schemes, fake checks, and job scams are explored
Did you know the concept of "checks" goes way back thousands of years? According to a blog post from Superior, back as early as 3000 B.C., merchants in ancient Babylon utilized clay tablets as "a primitive form of a promissory note, functioning much like a check does today." For the US, checks were first written 1680's by Boston businessman who mortgaged their land and other holdings and wrote checks against the money.
However, even back then, it didn't take long for checks to be exploited by fraudsters. To this day, fraudsters are continuing to target checks to siphon funds from financial institutions and their customers.
In the latest episode of Scam Detectors, journalist Jane Wakefield, along with Michele Herron, Head of North America Value Added Services at Visa and Oscar Rodriguez, VP of Product at LinkedIn, guide listeners through the surprisingly modern world of check fraud, showing how an old payment method has become the backbone of new kinds of scams.
Listen to the podcast on Apple Podcast or Spotify.
How Check Fraud is Perpetrated
The podcast notes that, according to research from Visa/Featurespace, 70% of FIs have seen an increase in customers reporting check fraud. Michele Herron of Visa steps in to dissect how these schemes actually operate, explaining overpayment tricks, fake checks that initially clear, and the time lag that lets fraudsters disappear before banks flag the problem. She shows how criminals adapt, blending long-established con techniques with newer tools, including AI, to make their communication, documentation, and even the checks themselves look more authentic than ever.
LinkedIn’s Oscar Rodriguez connects the dots to the broader ecosystem of online job scams, describing how fraudsters use professional platforms to stage their approaches, imitate real companies, and target people actively looking for opportunities. One familiar scenario: the fake company informs the "newly hired" employee that they will receive a check for an amount that will more than cover equipment purchase expenses for the position. They are then instructed to deposit the check and send the difference -- often via p2p like Venmo, Zelle, or CashApp -- back to the company. By the time the bank returns the check, the money that was transferred is long gone.
Throughout the episode, the guests return to a central theme: fraud can happen to anyone, and talking openly about these cases—sharing how they start, how they feel in the moment, and how they unravel—is one of the most powerful ways to make life harder for scammers and safer for potential victims.
AI Fraud Solutions Fight Back
The podcast also focuses on how AI fraud solutions are fighting back against fraudsters. Ms. Heron provides listeners with examples of different technologies that can help curb check fraud, including Behavioral Analytics. If an account typically writes a certain amount of checks per month -- I.E. one check per month for rent -- but one month, there are several checks written, it should be flagged as suspicious.
However, this is just one technology best layered on top of several others, such as image forensic AI. AI-powered solutions like Anywhere On-Us -- a key component leveraged by Visa/Featurespace -- analyzes the images of checks and compares them to previous cleared items, identifying differences in check stock, signatures, and writing styles. Additionally, this technology is leveraged in our Anywhere Deposit Fraud module to analyze if a deposited check at your financial institution is a counterfeit, forgery, or alteration.
Additionally, consumers are warned to be cautious and practice due diligence when applying for positions online. LinkedIn is deploying new AI technologies for ID verification of companies and/or individuals posting jobs on their platform, but it's important that the consumer does their research as well to protect themselves.
And, as noted in the podcast, "Always remember that anyone can become a victim of fraud. It is nothing to be ashamed of."