Chemical warfare on cheque fraud
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.ABBEY NATIONAL has begun printing its cheques with images that can only be seen under ultra-violet light to discourage the passing of counterfeit cheques.
The cheques are impregnated with chemicals that flare up under ultra-violet light.
Neil Churcher, the bank's manager of security and investigations, said that the arrival of colour photocopiers had made it easier to counterfeit cheques.
'Our new cheques cannot be reproduced without losing their ultra-violet flare,' he added.
The technique is applied to cheques supplied to Abbey National's 1.3 million current account customers and also to cheques written for customers from savings accounts.
Abbey admits that the technique cannot prevent fraud with stolen cheques. Retailers could believe them to be genuine.
Abbey stresses that a retailer, and anyone else presented with a bank or building society cheque, should wait until it is cleared before letting customers take delivery of expensive goods.
The warning was repeated by Yorkshire Building Society this week after the theft of several hundred of its pre-printed cheques. Serial numbers are 040637 to 041000.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments