SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR DETECTING CHEQUE FRAUD

A system and method for detecting check fraud includes a check scanning module and a detection module. The check scanning module scans checks and matches the encoded Magnetic Ink Character Recognition (MICR) data (i.e. serial number, Customer Account Number and amount) from the scanned digital electronic images with items in an issuance database which contains client provided check particulars. The detection module passes the check images through an optical character recognition (OCR) process to read what is written on the check and to match results against the issuance database. If the written information on the face of a check is unreadable or there is no match with the information in the issuance database, the detection module passes the check through a series of slower more precise OCR processes. Any checks that are not successfully read and matched are highlighted as an “exception” and immediately forwarded to the client for further action.