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Fraud Protection

There’s no doubt about it, statistics show that fraud is on the rise in our world today.

• 71% of organizations experienced attempted or actual payments fraud in 2010. (2011 AFP Payments Fraud Survey)
• Organizations in the U.S. lose about 7% of their annual revenue due to fraud. (Association of Certified Fraud Examiners)
• More than 1.2 million fraudulent checks are written each day – more than 13 per second. (Office of Comptroller of the Currency)
• Losses from check fraud are expected to grow by 2.5% annually in the coming years. (American Banker Magazine)

Crescent State Bank doesn’t want fraud to happen to you. Because of this, we offer our ACH Positive Pay and Check Positive Pay services to help protect you and your business against fraud.

As electronic payments are increasingly adopted by financial institutions and becoming popular with businesses, we are seeing one negative side effect – the number of automated clearing house (ACH) fraud incidents is on the rise. Last year, the Association of Financial Professionals conducted a Payments Fraud and Control survey and determined that ACH debit fraud is second only to check fraud. In fact, check writing leads to a majority of the fraud incidents associated with ACH payments, where thieves steal your bank information from the face of the check.

Paper checks include your business name, account number and routing number and often include your business mailing address and phone number. Thieves can use your checks to obtain this key information and make unauthorized ACH debits from your accounts. If you are a business account holder, you have only 2 days to return an unauthorized ACH transaction, while consumer account
holders have 60 days. This short time frame makes it critical for businesses owners to review their accounts on a daily basis for fraudulent ACH debits. Or, you can be proactive in choosing Crescent State Bank’s ACH Positive Pay to prevent this type of fraud from occurring and from funds being stolen from your account.

Features of ACH Positive Pay

Some of the advantages of using ACH Positive Pay include: 

• Allows businesses to set up companies that are authorized to debit the business account and then “block” other transactions. Businesses are sent an e-mail alert any time an unauthorized transaction is being presented on the account. The business can then review the transaction and make the decision to allow the item or have it returned. 
• Integrates with Check Positive Pay for exceptions, allowing users to see one screen of both check and ACH exceptions. 
• Allows for multiple approvers for dual control of decisioning exceptions.

ACH Positive Pay helps reduce the losses associated with ACH fraud. The solution allows you to take control of your business account and monitor potential ACH fraud.  By adopting ACH Positive Pay, you can reduce your risk of ACH fraud losses for your organization.

With millions of checks in circulation each day, businesses don’t have the time or resources to inspect each one. Yet, no one can afford to ignore the fact that some checks are stolen, counterfeited, or altered so that thieves can fraudulently draw on business accounts. Unfortunately for business owners, fraud is usually undetected until after the check is paid. Therefore, the business owner suffers the immediate, and sometimes permanent, loss of cash or profits.

Preventing Fraud with Positive Pay
Crescent State Bank’s Positive Pay service provides businesses with a proactive electronic tool to combat check fraud. As an early warning fraud detection system, Positive Pay arms your business with the information needed to stop check fraud before it becomes a loss to your business.

How does it work?
From high-tech counterfeit checks to simple forgeries, business checking accounts are targets for those who try to commit fraud or theft. Crescent State Bank’s Positive Pay allows businesses to electronically transmit its check register for all written checks to Crescent State Bank. The bank records this information in its systems so that when checks are presented against your business account, the system only pays checks that are listed on the register according to the precise specifications that you indicate – payee amount, serial number, etc.

If the bank systems detect a check(s) that doesn’t match the information you send to the bank, the check is marked for return and you’re given the opportunity via online banking to review the item before making a “return” or “pay” decision. In either case, you control the decisioning for payment of any “suspicious item.” And, working together with Crescent State Bank, fraud is stopped before your funds disappear.

• Reduces fraud – We only process what you tell us to, so fraudulent checks are rejected. 
• Saves time and money – Reduces labor associated with manual check prevention measures. 
• Provides convenience – Eliminates the need for you to review and inspect checks for potential fraud issues. 
• Puts you in control – Provides more accuracy and greater control over your cash flow. 
• Offers quick and easy access – Issue checks and approve Positive Pay exception items from virtually anywhere through Internet access.

For more information on how you can protect yourself and your business from fraud, please visit the FTC Businesses site, which can help your business or organization fight back against identity theft: http://www.stopcheckfraud.com/statistics.html.

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