Business customers of Peoples can take advantage of Positive Pay and other fraud prevention products
“It’s not a matter of ‘if’ a business will be hit by fraud. It’s more a question of ‘when,’” said Gayle Boettcher, Vice President – Treasury Management manager. Boettcher leads the Peoples Treasury Management department, helping businesses protect their finances from fraud.
In 2021, Peoples’ fraud prevention program stopped more than $70,000 in Automated Clearing House (ACH) debit items and nearly $300,000 in fraudulent checks from posting to our business customer’s accounts. Fraud does not discriminate by business size; any business can be targeted.
Treasury Management staff worked with several businesses last year that had fraudulent checks written against their accounts. One company had 40 checks identified in one day. Fortunately, the fraud was detected before the company incurred a loss. But not every business is so lucky.
More businesses are using Peoples’ Positive Pay program, designed to validate the payee, amount, check number, date, and account number on checks as they clear our business customer’s account. Customers are notified if a check does not match their pre-submitted criteria. The customer decides if the item is not valid. In those cases, the item would be returned as fraud.
“Fraud costs businesses billions of dollars every year. Utilizing Peoples State Bank’s fraud prevention tools will protect your business from fraud and could mean the difference between staying in business or not.”
Peoples State Bank is a community bank headquartered in Wausau, Wisconsin, serving north, central, and southeast Wisconsin from ten full-service banking locations in Marathon, Oneida, Vilas, Waukesha, and Milwaukee Counties, as well as a commercial loan production office in Stevens Point, WI.