Losses from check fraud and scams have become sizable in recent years, facilitated by technology, increasingly sophisticated fraud tactics and human nature’s vulnerabilities. U.S. losses due to fraud and scams were $138 billion in 2023, according to Nasdaq Verafin’s 2024 Global Financial Crime Report (Off-site). Major pain points for the industry include check fraud, scams, account takeovers (when unauthorized individuals gain access to and take control of a user's account), and synthetic identity fraud (made possible when criminals fabricate a person or entity to commit a dishonest act for personal or financial gain).
Prompted in part by these accelerating trends, the Federal Reserve has spent the past decade committed to advancing U.S. payment security through research on the changing fraud landscape, engaging and educating stakeholders on key fraud trends, and helping catalyze the industry to address common fraud.
A recent on-demand webinar summarizes the evolving fraud landscape: trends, challenges and tools — as well as a near-term opportunity to comment on how federal bank regulatory agencies can address payment and check fraud.
As highlighted in the webinar, the newly released Check Fraud Mitigation Toolkit (Off-site) and Scams Mitigation Toolkit (Off-site) are intended to support education and increase awareness about check fraud and scams, enable the payments industry to better identify and fight them, and foster industry collaboration on fraud and scams mitigation. These online repositories of insights and downloadable resources are valuable for financial institutions, businesses and consumers to help detect and mitigate scams and fraud. The toolkits will be expanded later in 2025.
Reminder: Federal bank regulatory agencies seek comment to address payment and check fraud
In June 2025, the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) and Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) requested input on potential actions to help mitigate risk of payments and check fraud (Off-site). Comments must be received by Sept. 18, 2025, 90 days after the request for comment notice was published in the Federal Register.
The Check Fraud Mitigation Toolkit and Scams Mitigation Toolkit were developed by the Federal Reserve to help educate the industry about scams and check fraud. Insights for these toolkits were provided through interviews with industry experts, publicly available research and team member expertise. The toolkits are not intended to result in any regulatory or reporting requirements, imply any liabilities for fraud loss, or confer any legal status, legal definitions, or legal rights or responsibilities. While use of these toolkits throughout the industry is encouraged, their utilization is voluntary at the discretion of each individual entity. Absent written consent, the toolkits may not be used in a manner that suggests the Federal Reserve endorses a third-party product or service.
