Duluth, MN (Northland's NewsCenter) --- The irony was inescapable Wednesday morning in Duluth as the invention of Frank Abagnale, a convicted felon, was touted as one of the best ways to avoid check fraud.
"Frank has always been, for the past 35 years, trying to prevent these kinds of fraud," SAFEChecks president Gregory Litster said. "He invented a new check, called the Super Business Check. It's a check that has never been able to be replicated by the forgers."
Abagnale's Super Business Check has 16 security features, both overt and covert, to help prevent check fraud, a problem Litster says is still prevalent.
"The paper check is still very real," Litster explained. "If you look at all kinds of payment frauds, 60 percent of all payment fraud losses are by check."
Still, we live in an ever increasingly digital world, and as more and more banking is done online, retired FBI Agent Jeff Lanza said people need to be aware of the risks.
"Anything that looks suspicious on their computer or any kind of email that you get from a company asking you to provide information is usually a way to try and steal that information," Lanza said.
And once it's stolen, Lanza said it's usually very hard to repair a person's identity.
"If you've victimized by a crime like this," Lanza continued, "the FBI and police have a lot of resources dedicated in other places, so the bottom line is you want to prevent it from happening in the first place."
The Super Business Check is available for purchase online at the SAFEChecks web site.
Posted by Zach Schneider
zschneider@northlandsnewscenter.com
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