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Cheque fraud soars ahead of credit card fraud

Published on September 25, 2020 - 2 mins reading time
Bank watch
Most cashless payment methods (card, credit transfer and direct debit) showed a generally controlled level of fraud in 2019. However, this is not the case for cheques, which have become the most fraud-prone in France. Read all about it.

Cheque fraud: 539 million euros in 2019

The cheque is the most defrauded means of payment in France, according to the 2019 annual report of the Observatoire de la sécurité des moyens de paiement published this September 22. Cheque fraud has increased by 20% in one year, reaching nearly 540 million euros last year. Its fraud rate exceeds that of bankcards for the first time.

The most common scams involve forging a signature on a lost or stolen cheque, forging a valid cheque, forging cheques and using "mules" found on social networks to cash fraudulent cheques worth several thousand euros in return for the promise of a fee.

Fraud on other means of payment is generally under control. For payment cards issued in France, the fraud rate remains stable at 0.064%. The fraud rate for credit transfers has risen slightly, but remains the lowest of all payment methods. The Observatory confirms that contactless card payments increased by more than 65% in September 2020 compared with the same period in 2019. However, the fraud rate has held steady: 1 euro of fraud for every 5,000 euros of payments. Finally, direct debit fraud fell sharply, to 11 million euros in 2019 (-81% year-on-year).

Cheques pay for their security shortcomings

Although cheques are being used less and less in France, they remain an integral part of payment habits, particularly for large-value payments that exceed bankcard limits. In fact, it remains the third most widely used means of payment in terms of transaction value, according to the central bank.

Concerned by the sharp rise in cheque fraud, the Observatoire has decided to launch a study into ways of strengthening the security of this means of payment, involving all the stakeholders concerned. The results will be presented in the Observatoire de la sécurité des moyens de paiement's 2020 annual report. Among the avenues already under consideration are theintroduction of new chequemanufacturing standards with additional security features, the traceability of cheque book shipments, and the rejection of cheques with excessive erasures.