OrboGraph

20/11/2025

The passing of Phyllis Meyerson last month marked a significant loss for the payments industry.

Phyllis spent fifty years shaping the world of payments and check processing, earning the respect of colleagues across the industry through her expertise, leadership and generosity.

Phyllis and co-author David Walker created the eBook Check 21: A Blockbuster Story, which brings the history of Check 21 to life through a personal and engaging narrative.

OrboGraph was privileged to support this project as it evolved into audio and video formats.

The multimedia versions are now available on the Tiller Endeavor website, making this important piece of payments history accessible to a wider audience.

Today’s blog reflects on Phyllis’s impact and provides access to the newly released multimedia story. We invite you to take a moment to revisit her work and the lasting influence she had on our industry.

On October 15, 2025, the payments industry lost one of its icons. Phyllis Meyerson was a 50-year payments and check-processing veteran...

19/11/2025

The payee line has one of the most targeted areas on a check by a fraudster. However, it still doesn’t get the attention it deserves from fraud prevention.

Check washing, digital “check cooking,” and line stuffing make it easy for criminals to alter payee information without disrupting the rest of the check. And, as more deposits move through mRDC and ATMs, these alterations become even harder to identify through traditional review.

Banks are taking a closer look at the payee line and strengthening how they validate it. With tools like OrboGraph’s Anywhere Payee and image forensic analysis, they can catch subtle payee-line changes including spacing, handwriting, and added names that often go unnoticed.

Bringing more awareness to this attack point is essential. Strengthening the payee field closes a long-standing gap that fraudsters continue to prey upon.

Do you think payee-line protection gets enough attention in fraud strategies today?

Explore how financial institutions are reinforcing payee-level defenses in today’s OrboNation blog post.

Fraudsters exploit the payee field to alter checks and avoid detection Techniques include check washing, digital editing, and adding extra payee names Banks can use AI tools to identify alterations and strengthen payee field security While check fraud tactics have drastically evolved over the past d...

05/11/2025

Just two years ago, stolen checks were selling on dark web and Telegram markets at around $150 for personal checks and $250 for business checks.

But, as David Maimon recently highlighted, those same checks are now going for as little as $15, or even less when purchased in bulk.

At first glance, that drop might sound like progress. However, it may point towards a growing problem: Mail theft.

Frank Albergo of the Postal Police Officers Association notes that stolen checks are being taken in massive quantities, flooding the market and turning check fraud into an everyday, large-scale operation.

Others, like Featurespace’s Majid Malek, suggest improved fraud detection tools could be lowering fraudsters’ success rates, and therefore demand.

So, is the falling price a sign of better defenses or simply a reflection of a market saturated with stolen checks?

04/11/2025

Is 90% of check fraud being caught across the banking industry too high of an estimate?

Unfortunately, the data behind it isn’t so clear.

​​​​​​​Can one statistic really represent every bank, every branch, and every region?

Our latest blog takes a closer look at what’s actually happening beneath that figure. Check fraud started to spike around 2017–2018, and since then, detection results have varied dramatically, with factors such as location and number of attempts creating the “urgency” for adoption of advanced fraud technologies.

Discover what the 90% figure really means – and how some banks are already surpassing it – in today’s blog post.

Check fraud attempts remain high Claims of 90% check fraud detection rates across the industry are likely too high Technologies like pattern recognition and machine learning significantly reduce check fraud Check fraud continues to make headlines, but the true impact-and the relative effectiveness o...

29/10/2025

In the recent Milwaukee Business Journal’s Table of Experts, leaders from banking, manufacturing, and commerce shared how businesses can better protect themselves. Lyneen Fischer, VP of Security at North Shore Bank, noted that while check volume has dropped, the value of each check has nearly doubled — making them prime targets for fraudsters.

From Positive Pay with payee match to the dual-sided role of AI, the conversation revealed just how much the fight against check fraud has evolved.

The “Table of Experts” discussion provided expert insights on how business can protect themself from growing check fraud threats.

22/10/2025

Gen Z might be the most tech-savvy generation, but they’re also becoming the most financially vulnerable.

According to Barclays’ latest Scams Bulletin:

-35% of Gen Z would move money for someone they don’t know
-71% aren’t aware they could face criminal charges for mule activity
-48% have been targeted by a job scam or know someone who has
-63% of job scams involve paper checks

As scammers use social media and messaging apps to appear more credible, Gen Z’s financial inexperience makes them easy targets.

Even in a digital-first world, paper checks continue to fuel scams, and catching them early means combining education, awareness, and AI-powered detection.

What do you think: Should financial institutions be doing more to educate younger consumers, or does the real solution start with better technology?

Read the full blog for a closer look at how scammers are exploiting financial inexperience

Gen Z is becoming recognized as a prime fraud target A quarter of Gen Z fraud victims do not report incidents Financial institutions have stepped up educating their customers WebWire’s report on the latest Barclays Scams Bulletin has revealed a worrisome trend among Gen Z: A striking 35% of young ...

22/10/2025

Gen Z might be the most tech-savvy generation, but they’re also becoming the most financially vulnerable.

According to Barclays’ latest Scams Bulletin:

-35% of Gen Z would move money for someone they don’t know
-71% aren’t aware they could face criminal charges for mule activity
-48% have been targeted by a job scam or know someone who has
-63% of job scams involve paper checks

As scammers use social media and messaging apps to appear more credible, Gen Z’s financial inexperience makes them easy targets.

Even in a digital-first world, paper checks continue to fuel scams, and catching them early means combining education, awareness, and AI-powered detection.

What do you think: Should financial institutions be doing more to educate younger consumers, or does the real solution start with better technology?

Read the full blog for a closer look at how scammers are exploiting financial inexperience

https://orbograph.com/barclays-report-35-of-gen-z-unintentionally-become-money-mules/?utm_source=social+media&utm_medium=linkedin&utm_campaign=Gen+Z+Mules&utm_id=fraudblog

21/10/2025

What happens when every type of fraud begins to feed the next?

In 2025, financial crime in America has become an ecosystem wherein a stolen check can spark an identity theft case, which leads to a bank account takeover, which ends in a full-scale scam.

According to Dr. David Maimon’s analysis of FinCEN data, reports of check fraud, account takeovers, and identity theft have surged to record levels. But what’s even more concerning is how these crimes now overlap, creating a cycle that’s harder than ever to break.

For financial institutions, fighting fraud in isolation is no longer enough. The shift toward a FRAML (Fraud + AML) approach is giving banks a wider lens, connecting patterns, detecting linked crimes, and uncovering larger operations hidden beneath individual incidents.

Read more about how this “web of crime” is reshaping fraud prevention in today’s blog post.

Financial crime data for 2025 is sobering These crimes are interconnected A FRAML approach to fraud strategies is recommended As digital and financial environments continue to evolve, so do the fraud threats that face American consumers. In a recent post from Forbes, Dr. David Maimon paints a soberi...

16/10/2025

The U.S. Treasury Department has officially eliminated paper check disbursements… well, most of them.

To assist the estimated 10M individuals who will need to transition to direct deposit, the U.S. Treasury Department has published a new Resources Page to educate recipients about the phaseout, offering support in shifting to electronic payments.

How will the elimination of U.S. Treasury paper disbursements affect financial institutions? Very minimally, as U.S. Treasury checks only account for 36M (according to the Federal Reserve data) of the 9-10B paper checks written each year.

U.S. Treasury Department has officially “eliminated” paper check disbursements — with many exceptions New resources page published by the U.S. Treasury to assist in transition How will this impact inancial institutions? As many are aware, as of September 30, 2025 the US Government has official...

15/10/2025

According to TransUnion’s H2 2025 Global Fraud Report, businesses across the globe lost an astonishing 7.7% of their annual revenue to fraud in the past year—totaling an estimated $534 billion.

In the United States -- which has a unique payments landscape as checks are still heavily utilized by businesses, the situation is even more alarming, with losses averaging 9.8% of annual revenue, up 46% from 2024 and 27% higher than the global average. For the surveyed U.S. companies alone, this represents $114 billion in lost revenue.

Take a deeper dive into the TransUnion report and the US's unique fraud challenges.

Companies lost 7.7% of their annual revenue to fraud in the past year The United States has a fraud loss rate that is 27% higher than the global average U.S. House Committee on Financial Services recently convened to discuss the issue Fraud is inflicting record-setting damage on businesses worldwide...

09/10/2025

While the government continues its push toward eliminating paper checks, small and mid-sized businesses aren’t necessarily following the same path.

For many, checks remain a practical and familiar payment method, supported by customers who still prefer them and by operations that aren’t fully equipped for a digital-only approach.

In fact, 91% of businesses still use paper checks, showing just how ingrained they are in everyday transactions.

The move to digital payments may be gaining ground, but widespread adoption among SMBs will take more than new standards – it requires readiness on both sides of the transaction. Until then, checks will continue to play a key role in how businesses send and receive payments.

How do you see this balance shifting in the years ahead?
Read the full post on OrboNation to explore what this means for SMBs and financial institutions.

The U.S. government plans to eliminate paper checks in federal payments Small businesses face a challenge Local merchants, contractors,& independent service providers rely on checks PYMNTS takes a look at the U.S. government’s move to eliminate paper checks in federal payments, which is accelerati...

08/10/2025

AI isn’t just transforming fraud detection; it’s transforming fraud itself.

In the latest Wrestling Payments podcast, Brian Keefe of NICE Actimize sheds light on a problem that isn’t getting enough attention: AI-driven check fraud.

Fraudsters are now using AI to forge, alter, and mass-produce counterfeit checks faster than ever, and sharing their playbooks on the dark web.

But this same technology is also what’s helping financial institutions fight back.

From explainable AI to real-time image forensic analysis, the race between fraudsters and defenders is accelerating, and it’s clear:

Whoever uses AI smarter, wins.