Prevent Against Cheque Frauds!

How to Protect Yourself Against Cheque Frauds?

As more and more people and business switch to online banking and wallet payments. Cheques still form the major payment mode for businesses as it provides the buyer with a flexibility to pay on a future date and the seller to secure a payment from the buyer without having to follow up on a rigorous basis. This is a complete guide to protect yourself against cheque frauds

Why business still use cheques?

• Cheques are deemed as the most familiar method for payments.
• Cheques make it easier to manage cash flows.
• No Deductions ever for any cheques deposited to the account.

1. Prefix and Suffix your entries on the cheque

Always put (**) or (##) Symbol at the beginning and end of each field on your Cheques. This ensures that no one adds anything to alter the meaning of it.

2. Use date in DD-MMM-YYYY format only

Most of the times we write the cheque date as 05/02/24. This most likely will imply that the cheque is meant for 5th of February 2024. However, it can be changed to 05/02/2025 to extend the validity of the cheque by 1 year or presented on 2nd of May 2024. To avoid such confusions, you should always write the date on your cheques as DD-MMM-YYYY (05-May-2024).

3. Never overwrite or correct information on the cheque

It is human nature to correct things when you make a mistake. This can turn out to be dangerous on a cheque. If you made a mistake on a cheque, and then corrected and resigned it, you indirectly indicate that you issue cheques which can have corrections and no action is required in case your cheque has overwriting which is countersigned. You should always cancel and issue a new cheque so you present the correct and professional picture to your suppliers and banks.

4. Always issue account payee cheques

Accounts payee cheques imply that the cheque cannot be cashed over the counter and the money will be deposited to the Beneficiary’s account only. For making a cheque Accounts Payee, you should either put two diagonal lines on the top left or Write the Words ACCOUNTS PAYEE ONLY or A/C Payee Only on top of the cheque. This intimates the bank that the cheque cannot be cashed over the counter is meant for account to account transfer only.

5. Get a receipt for the cheque

We can’t emphasize on how important it is to get a receipt at the time of issuing a cheque. You should, without fail, get the person collecting the cheque to sign a copy of the cheque and get an official receipt from them. This way you ensure that the other party banking the cheque has agreed on the date, amount and other aspects of the transaction.

6. Track your Cheques

Keep a sharp eye towards your bank account via SMS and reconcile your bank regularly depending on your cheque volume.

7. Use cheque printing software

Not to worry, how to print cheques! There are many softwares which are available for printing cheques instead of handwriting them. One such our cheque printing software by Delicate Software Solutions, which covers all of the above features, is FastCheque. It is a cheque printing software for UAE Banks and it comes preconfigured with all UAE Bank Cheque Formats.