A recent poll by the Association for Financial Professionals (AFP) found that 94% of the companies polled had experienced attempted or actual check fraud.

Of those attempts, 71% were successful and a third of those asked said fraud’s on the rise.

AFP senior consultant Arlene Chapman says “The battle against payments fraud requires innovative technical tools and high alert to guard against the new technical capabilities and practices of criminals.”

What’s the most susceptible payment fraud method? The most simple — checks. AFP recommends that to prevent this kind of crime you’ve first got to keep tabs on employees because at least half the time, they’re the ones committing the fraud. Separate responsibilities to make sure different folks are entering, tracking and approving payments.

One important tech step: Quickly delete user IDs and passwords from the computers of former employees. It’s also a good idea to use more sophisticated tools to verify payments, things like tokens, digital certificates and smartcards. Electronic payments with debit and credit cards, along with wire transfers, are also much safer than paying with paper.

Tags: check fraud, digital certificates, payments, smartcards, tokens