Tampering with laser printed cheques is becoming an increasing problem and Locus shares clients' concerns to ensure that security features are incorporated in the Locus cheque design to combat attempted fraud. It needs to be recognised, however, that there are many variables that can influence the ability of fraudsters to tamper with laser printed cheques. The paper stock is only one of those variables.
The following are suggestions to enhance your firm's procedures for paper care and secure storage of cheque forms.
Establish secure storage and audit procedures to ensure that cheque stock is stored and controlled appropriately.
All paper is vulnerable to variations in temperature and humidity. If the paper is cold and/or damp then the adhesion of toner to the cheque paper is adversely affected. Make sure paper is stored away from extreme temperature and humidity, i.e. away from radiators, air conditioning grilles and direct sunlight. Ideal cheque storage conditions should be a maintained temperature of between 18-24º degrees Celsius, with a relative humidity of 40-60%.
Seal cheque stock in the original wrapping until just before it is to be used. Remove unused cheque stock from the printer after the print run and reseal it to minimise water absorption from the atmosphere.
Ensure the printer is fully warmed up before printing cheques. If the printer has a "powersave" mode, turn it off to ensure that the toner fuser is always hot, or print a few pages after the printer has been in "sleep" mode before doing a cheque run. This will help the printer to reach its optimum operating temperature before the cheques are printed. This helps to reduce toner being lifted off cheques by fraudsters who try to alter cheque details.
Reconcile your cheque account promptly and regularly with independent overview by the appropriate level of management. Separate the cheque writing and account reconciliation functions.
Use Locus cheque requisition forms to coordinate the authorisation process with the controls on the Locus software.
The Australian Payments Clearing Association (APCA) represents its members, such as the major Australian banks and financial institutions, and publishes information about fraud prevention in relation to cheques and electronic payments in Australia.
Locus has been a registered security cheque printer with the ACPA for many years and has supplied tens of millions of its SecureIT cheques and receipt forms to law firms all over Australia. Locus prides itself on providing high-quality cheques that exceed APCA requirements.
As expected by clients, Locus employs the best security features available. Locus is constantly liaising with the APCA and its members to identify new security features that will minimise the risk of cheque fraud. A product to come to the attention of the banking industry is DatafuseTM paper. This paper is reported to be more "frangible" (more likely to tear when attacked) than most other types of security paper. This means that attempts to tamper with payee or payment amount details is more likely to be detected by the monitoring systems within banks.
Following recent advice about the increased tamper resistant qualities of DatafuseTM paper, Locus has included the DatafuseTM paper as a standard security feature of Locus SecureIT cheques. Other suppliers charge an added fee for DatafuseTM paper. SecureIT Cheques users now receive DatafuseTM paper at no additional cost.
For added confidence, Locus SecureIT cheques are coordinated to work with Locus software and cheque requisition forms to provide a system for payment authorisation and cheque protection that is auditable and tamper resistant. Only Locus SecureIT cheques are guaranteed to work with Locus software.
Beware of cheap cheques that use inferior base stock, that may be of a different size to the Locus cheques and/or are printed from roll paper with perforated edges. These cheques may provide fewer security features and lead to printing and alignment problems. They may not suit the Locus cheque window face envelope and the cheque butt portion may not be pre-drilled to allow easy filing in the Locus SecureIT cheque binders.
Locus SecureIT cheques are personalised for your practice with your firm's logo and a choice of standard and special coloured base stock is available so your staff can easily identify the different cheque account entities. Locus SecureIT cheques include the unique Locus counterfoil that provides the cheque signatory with all of the information needed to satisfy that the cheque is in proper form and that the funds are available.
Specialist LocusDirect staff are available to assist you in the preparation of your order requirements and to process all Bank and associated correspondence necessary to proof and print your cheques. Contact LocusDirect on 02 9255 1000 to discuss your quality cheque and receipt requirements.
Tampering with laser printed cheques is becoming an increasing problem and Locus shares clients' concerns to ensure that security features are incorporated in the Locus cheque design to combat attempted fraud. It needs to be recognised, however, that there are many variables that can influence the ability of fraudsters to tamper with laser printed cheques. The paper stock is only one of those variables. 
