Positive Pay – Protect Your Business Accounts Against Check or ACH Fraud

By Gina Stuelke, CEO of Kenton Brothers

The 2023 AFP® Payments Fraud and Control Survey reports 65 percent of organizations were victims of payments fraud attacks/attempts in 2022. Checks continue to be the payment method most vulnerable to fraud, with 63% of respondents reporting their organizations faced fraud activity via checks. Of those who were victims of payments fraud in 2022, more than one-fourth of organizations (27%) were able to successfully recover at least 75% of funds lost.

However, nearly half (44%) were unsuccessful in recouping any of the stolen funds. Forty-five percent of respondents (the highest in the past five years) cited wires as a top payment method used during BEC attempts. Instances of fraud via commercial card increased by 10 percentage points, and instances of fraud via ACH credits and virtual cards increased by 6 percentage points each.

Scary stuff, right?

How many business owners have had a scare when a potentially fraudulent check is presented at their bank for payment? We recently had what looked like a legitimate check written to a credit card company (one that we use) for $21,000. This is happening regularly these days, and we needed a safeguard to help protect us from this type of fraud.

Country Club Bank’s Positive Pay program is a great way to prevent fraud and/or encoding errors.

Check Positive Pay

Here is how the check Positive Pay system works:

1. Your company assigns check data and sends it to the bank.
2. New checks submitted against your business checking account are verified against the data submitted.
3. Exceptions are sorted out and you are notified via email or text message depending on your notification settings.
4. You log into the bank portal or mobile app to decide whether to pay the item or deny it.

ACH Positive Pay

Here is how the ACH Positive Pay system works:

1. Your company identifies a list of approved ACH debits for your business account.
2. The approved IDs are added to your business online banking profile.
3. As ACH debits are presented to your account, the IDs are matched against approved IDs in the system.
4. Exceptions are sorted out and you are notified via email or text message depending on your notification settings.
5. You log into the bank portal or mobile app to decide whether to pay the item or deny it.

These safeguards work really well, and give you peace of mind that fraudulent checks or ACH debits don’t hit your business accounts. If you don’t have Positive Pay enabled for your business, ask your bank about this service! Don’t get taken by scammers — there is protection available for you in the form of Positive Pay for your business accounts!