Armed with just a checking account number and bank routing number, criminals can create checks at whim, experts and law enforcement authorities say. In fact, as the Urban Age Institute found out, at least one Internet site makes the process even easier. All the fraudulent checks drawn on the organization's checking account were printed and mailed by
Qchex.com, a Web site whose stated aims are to make sending and e-mailing check payments easy for anyone connected to the Internet...
At
Qchex.com, users who sign up to print checks must provide only a working e-mail address.
No other attempt is made to verify their identity. In fact, the site urges people to register their checking accounts at Qchex before someone else does...
At the center of the controversy is a little-known system for cashing checks called demand drafts. Most consumers presume that checks must be signed by an authorized account holder. That's ordinarily true, but not in the case of so-called "demand drafts." These look just like checks, but indicate "signature not required" or a similar message in the authorized signature area. And generally, banks cash them just like valid, signed checks...
What's needed to create a demand draft? Simply the account number and bank routing number - information found on every single check. Write a check to your 12-year-old babysitter, and she has all the information she would need to clean out your account.
WHAT? Can your checking account be defrauded EASILY? You bet!
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