WEST BEND — Forte Bank is highlighting its Positive Pay program, which protects businesses against check fraud, after staff helped stop an alleged check fraud scheme in Washington County in July.
According to court records, five Milwaukee men have been charged in an alleged check fraud scheme through which they are alleged to have cashed, and attempted to cash, several checks at banks in Washington County, including Forte Bank branches in West Bend, Slinger, Hubertus and Hartford.
At Forte Bank, businesses that bank with Forte are eligible to take part in its Positive Pay program, which protects them from check fraud and automated clearing house (ACH) fraud, for a fee of $20 per month for the first account and $10 per month for each subsequent account.
“Positive Pay is set up for our business customers, and what they do is any items they have written out, check items that they have written out to vendors, customers, people, whatever, they upload that file to the Positive Pay site, which works with Forte Bank’s business online banking,” said Forte Assistant Vice President & Business Services Banker Lisa Becker. “What we’re looking for is payee, check number and dollar amount. If there is a discrepancy when those items come in for clearing, from what the business has submitted, then the business reviews the item.”
According to Becker, the business can look at the check, both front and back, and then decide to accept or reject the check. If the check is accepted, it is processed like normal, but if it is rejected it goes back to where it came from.
“It doesn’t impact the customer’s account,” said Becker.
She added that with the program, businesses then don’t have to set up a new account if there has been fraud, because with positive pay the fraud is prevented before it happens.
Forte Bank started offering the Positive Pay program within the last couple years due to the increase in fraud in the industry.
“Positive Pay is not new to banking, a lot of banks offer this and we have offered this for the last couple years as check fraud has grown,” said Becker. “We’ve all seen it grow, and we’ve decided it was a product we wanted to offer our customers.”
“It’s a great program, we’ve had customers that used it and it’s saved them. They’ve been very thankful that we offered it to them and we encouraged them to take it. The cost is minimal when you’re talking about the size of some of the checks that can get cashed and get written,” said Forte Senior Vice President & Chief Lending Officer Gary Heckendorf. “It is an insurance policy for them and for us.
“Fraud has become so, so heavy right now in the industry no matter which bank.”
According to Becker, business clients of Forte Bank who write a lot of checks are strongly encouraged to enroll in the Positive Pay program for the peace of mind it brings. She added that Forte Bank will also take clients stepby- step through the Positive Pay program to get it set up and to help them get familiar with it.
Both Becker and Heckendorf also suggested that businesses should take extra precautions with checks to best protect themselves from potential fraud, including taking checks directly to the post office so they can’t be taken out of a mailbox.
“That’s where the majority of it happens, is stealing mail,” said Becker. “You put that flag up (on the mail box) and everybody knows there is mail in there.”
According to Becker, if businesses are not customers of Forte Bank, they should still check with their bank to see if the Positive Pay program is offered and enroll.
“Check fraud isn’t of high importance to a customer until it happens to them,” said Becker. “I would encourage anybody, whether they bank at Forte Bank or bank somewhere else, to check with their bank if they offer Positive Pay, and if they do there is usually a fee, but that fee certainly is way less than if they have check fraud.”