FakeCheck.org includes funny "Candid Camera" style videos of an actor getting members of the public to fall for fake check scams, and videos of real victims sharing their stories

Cashier's and corporate checks, however, are just as likely to be fraudulent as personal checks. For 30 days or more, the bank that deposits the check can reach back into the consumer's account and take the money -- leaving the consumer with a large debt

International cooperation has helped U.S. authorities put "boots on the ground," in Nigeria, said Greg Campbell of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service. In many fake check scams, criminals are overseas but victims are in the U.S., so it's important to convince international authorities to "protect our (U.S.) citizens and go after their criminals," he said.

'I Chop Your Dollar'
The postal service announcement at the National Press Club, included officials from Nigeria, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and Canada, and stressed the international nature of the crime.

The National Consumers League released data on Wednesday showing that most consumers are confused about who picks up the tab for check fraud. Only one-third of those surveyed realized that they are responsible if a check they cash turns out to be fraudulent, said Susan Grant, vice president of the National Consumers League

You might think you're too clever to fall for any of these cons, but they still work. The Postal Inspectors also announced the seizure of fake checks worth more than $2 billion from January to August of this year

With a bit of wry humor, the site exposes six common cashier's check scams: online seductions, overpayments, renter schemes, fake lotteries, work-at-home scams, and foreign business partnerships.

For years, online con artists have exploited this misunderstanding. But the United States Postal Inspector's office is launching a new campaign aimed at clearing things up. On Wednesday, the agency announced the arrest of 77 criminals worldwide involved in bank check frauds, and unveiled a new public education TV campaign and Web site named FakeChecks.org.

But that's not true. It can take weeks for banks to identify fraudulent checks. That means it might be a month or more before they take the money out of your account.

The cashier's check has long been an Internet criminal's best friend. Consumers seem to think cashier's checks, which come emblazoned with bank logos, are as good as cash. Once a check clears and funds are made available, people think the check must be legit

Bank check,handwritten checks

In spite of rapid evolution of electronic techniques, a number of large-scale applications continue to rely on the use of paper as the dominant medium. This is especially true for processing of bank checks. This paper examines the issue of reading the numerical amount field. In the case of checks, the segmentation of unconstrained strings into individual digits is a challenging task because of connected and overlapping digits, broken digits, and digits that are physically connected to pieces of strokes from neighboring digits. The proposed architecture involves four stages: segmentation of the string into individual digits, normalization, recognition of each character using a neural network classifier, and syntactic verification. Overall, this paper highlights the importance of employing a hybrid architecture that incorporates multiple approaches to provide high recognition rates.