I've been of the opinion at least for the last 10 years that the banks are the problem, and they don't care. I believe they have the ability to stop MUCH of the fraud that occurs, but they choose not to, because then they won't be able to charge you "service fees". I would guess there are more credit cards in the world than checking accounts, and with today's modern technology, when you transact on a credit or debit card, it's near instant. If I make a charge and don't have the balance, it's rejected in most cases. The fact that banks can't do this with checks is just a laugh. The fact it can takes weeks is more of a joke. It's all electronic, now a days when you write a check, they scan it and hand it back to you. I can scan with my phone and deposit without ever going to the bank. The can validate funds and transfer money when you want to do it instantly, like when you transfer funds for a home sale, and I can access my account from anywhere in the world to check my balance, so I think they can too.

How would it help "the bank" by turning away phoney checks? It won't, in their eyes, but hey, if they can charge you all sorts of service fees and act like a phony check is a new thing, why not make some money? This is a bit of a rant on banks, sorry Vid1900. Banks can be, in my opinion, crooks. Many don't know this, but up until a few years ago, large banks like Chase and Bank Of America would actually REOPEN your closed account, without your permission and then charge you service fees when there would be activity on that account you may have forgotten about, like say you forgot to change an automatic magazine renewal. so they would reopen your account, pay the magazine subscription for you, charge you a $50 service overdraft fee, then charge you another fee for not having a minimum balance! And some even charge you a fee for reopening the account!

But good advice Vid, thanks for posting.