Montana Lawyer August/September 2025

o This is common when fraudsters copy an image of a stolen check as they may just have one side of the original check. o The back of the check may contain informa tion that does not match the front. • A personal check that does not have a perforated edge at the top. o Believe it or not, those little ridges that often make us nervous when we are peeling a check out of our checkbook also are a security feature. • A check that shows obvious signs of being altered o Not much explanation here, sometimes fraudsters are lazy and think that a bank won’t notice. • A check drawn on a new account (maybe from a counter check) or has no or low number sequence and a large dollar amount. o New accounts generally have a hold placed on funds (generally 5-10 business days for new customers opening new accounts). o Fraudsters have generally caught onto the fact that high dollar amounts on low numbered checks are less likely to be accepted by financial institutions, but it is still a good identifier of a fraudulent check. • A signature that is irregular looking or shaky, or shows some irregular gaps in the signature line. • A check printed on paper that is slippery or high gloss. o In general, checks which are printed on high gloss paper are easier to “wash” as the ink will come off glossy paper. Compare with real check paper where the ink is “drilled” into the surface allowing the ink to penetrate the paper. • Colors that smear with a moistened finger. o Quick, easy, and effective check. • Checks payable to a corporation that are presented for cashing by an individual. o This would be an uncommon exception for this scenario to be legitimate. • Corporate or government checks which show numbers that do not match print style (font) of the rest of the check. o Fonts or type styles on legitimate checks are generally consistent, to have one element of a check with an inconsistent font would be a major red flag. • Checks which are presented with urgency are often an attempt to bypass procedure. o This is what we teach tellers, but as business owners and consumers we can also take something away from this. It is very rare that cashing a check or depositing a check has to be done RIGHT NOW. There are exceptions of course,

however if you are being pressured into receiving payment and turning payment around quickly something could be up. • Checks that have dollar amounts and written dollar amounts that do not match. o For example, the dollar amount is $25,000 but the written words of the check reads “two thousand five hundred dollars.” This may be obvious, but it is easy to look for. • Payroll checks made out to an even dollar amount. • General Security Features that appear missing. o Water marks o Edge detailing • Misalignment of signatory lines or otherwise untidy arrangements on face of check. o This can be as simple as the remitter line be ing too far indented when compared to the signature line. • Last but not least, if you have done very little in order to receive a check from someone and there is often a “car rot” of having to send some of the money back… it is fraud. Fraudsters are terrific social engineers and know that people like getting something for nothing (or very little). After consulting with Brandon, I chose not to deposit the check. I reached out to the debtor and requested a second ary method of payment. Not surprisingly, that request was rejected and the client demanded that I deposit the check. Eventually, the correspondence I mailed to the “client” arrived at the address they provided to me, but was in fact deeded to someone else with a very similar name. The simi larly named person forwarded my letter and dozens of others to the Federal Bureau of Investigation who later contacted me regarding the scam. The Special Agent running that investiga tion noted that many lawyers from across the country had already fallen for that particular trust deposit scam. Had I not listened to my doubts and been blinded by con fidence; I too could have fallen for this scam. Instead, I was willing to question the information before me and was for tunate to have an amazing resource like Brandon available to help. Had I ignored my doubts, I could have issued payment from my Trust account to the “client” containing the very real funds of my actual clients. A very costly violation of Montana Rule of Professional Conduct 1.15. To protect our businesses, we must use our lawyer skills to analyze situations like these and make objective business decisions based on the information before us. Additionally, lawyers must build relationships with other professionals, especially our Montana bankers, so that they can utilize those relationships when exceptional situations occur that test the limits of an attorney’s knowledge and experience. Special thanks to Brandon for his professional assistance and his willingness to provide these tips for all Montana lawyers!

AUGUST-SEPTEMBER 2025

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