Working With Checking and Savings Accounts - The Homer Fund

Preventing Forgery
Forgery is when a person purposefully tries to withdraw money from your account by
pretending to be you.
If for any reason you think that someone has taken one of your checks, immediately call
your financial institution. Explain the situation and request that they cancel the check
before anyone has an opportunity to cash it. This is called a stop-payment. There may
be a fee for placing a stop-payment on a check, but it is better than having someone rob
you of your savings.
To prevent forgery:
• Use a blue ballpoint pen to write your checks. This way no one can photocopy your
check or erase your writing and increase the amount of the check.
• If you make a mistake on a check, write “VOID” in big letters across the check.
Tear it up and throw it into the garbage.
• Write your checks in cursive. Cursive is more difficult to imitate than printing.
• Don’t sign blank checks. Wait until a check is filled out to sign it.
• Don’t leave any extra room on the line where you write out the dollar amount of the
check. Use a line to eliminate the blank space.
• Do not use erasable pen to write your checks.
• Keep your checkbook in a safe place.
1. Checks are used for (check all that apply):
❏ a. paying bills.
❏ b. making purchases without cash.
SELF-ASSESSMENT 4
2. Forgery is when:
❏ a. a person makes a deposit for another person.
❏ b. you cancel a check you have written.
❏ c. a person tries to withdraw money from an account that is not theirs.
3. You can prevent forgery by (check all that apply):
❏ a. writing “VOID” across a check if you make a mistake.
❏ b. using a ballpoint pen to write your checks.
❏ c. writing in clear print so that people can read your handwriting.
❏ d. keeping your checkbook in a safe place.
How did you do?: 1.a,b 2.c 3.a,b,d
14