WASHINGTON—The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) has published a new Financial Trend Analysis (FTA) on mail theft-related check fraud that shows nearly $700 million in suspicious activity was reported over a six-month period.
FinCEN said its findings are based on Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) data filed in the six months following its issuance of its 2023 alert on this same topic. During the review period, FinCEN said it received 15,417 BSA reports from 841 financial institutions on mail theft-related check fraud, amounting to more than $688 million in reported suspicious activity.
Three Primary Outcomes
In its analysis of BSA reports for the FTA, FinCEN said it identified three primary outcomes after checks were stolen from the U.S. Mail:
- 44% were altered and then deposited
- 26% were used as templates to create counterfeit checks
- 20% were fraudulently signed and deposited.
A Range of Sophistication
According to FinCEN, check manipulation methodologies ranged in sophistication, and many perpetrators tried to avoid interaction with bank personnel.
FinCEN said it also found that banks filed 88% of all mail theft-related check fraud reports, and that the analysis revealed financial institutions reported transactional activity or BSA filing subjects linked to every U.S. state, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico.
“While every state was affected, populous states with large urban areas had more reported incidents,” FinCEN said.
In releasing its findings, FinCEN said it continues its focus on fraud, which it has highlighted as one of the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism National Priorities.