Preventative Steps to Help Protect Your Business Against Fraud

Fraud can impact anyone, and fraudsters are always on the lookout for new ways to take advantage of your business. Business Payment Fraud involves fraudsters scamming payments or intercepting legitimate payments and diverting those funds. In recent years, as direct payment software has improved, the prevalence of check fraud has grown more popular with fraudsters.

Tools such as Positive Pay go a long way to help prevent fraud, but to truly be vigilant you need to be taking action within your business as well. Review the checklist below for steps you can take to help protect your business:

Take Extra Precautions When Mailing Checks

Current fraudsters are intercepting business' mail in search of checks.

• Fraudsters can not only attempt to cash those checks but also use the information to submit fraudulent ACH transfers.

Take checks in person to the post office to deliver by hand.

Consider making payments via Bill Pay or ACH.

Utilize Services Such as Positive Pay or Reverse Positive Pay

Positive Pay is an automated check and ACH debit matching program. Positive Pay allows you to monitor check and ACH debits presented for payment against your account and allows you to reject unauthorized transactions before they occur.

Review Your Internal Procedures

Ensure check inventory is stored in a secure location

• Your checks should be protected, not just from outside actors but also from internal. While no one likes to think their employees would assist in fraud, the risk is still prevalent and steps should be taken to protect your business.

Ensure there isn't a single person balancing and issuing checks

• Creating systems of approval through multiple people prevent one individual having too much control over the process where fraud could be more easily committed.

Train employees to detect and combat check fraud

• Ensuring your staff are on the lookout for fraud creates additional barrier against fraudsters aiming to take advantage of your business. Consider quarterly trainings on what to look out for and how to respond if fraud is detected.

Review Your Accounts Daily

You must review your accounts by 11:00 am each morning and report any fraudulent activity to your bank immediately. Early detection is key to limiting the impact on your business. Refer to tompkinsbank.com/fraud-protection for more information on the Daily Review and Reporting Process.

Add Protections to Certain Accounts Such as ACH Block / ACH Filter or Check Block

Consider ACH block for accounts where you have no ACH payment activity or ACH Filter to enable automatic blocking of payments not authorized by you. Utilize Check Block for accounts that do not have check activity.

Fraud affects businesses every day, taking steps to combat fraud before it occurs is the most effective strategy for minimizing the risk it poses to your business.

Tompkins customers, please reach out to your branch representative if you have suspicion or proof of fraud.