I work in a very rural, very low-risk area so this is a first for me. I am wondering what, if anything I should do. This morning in the local news there was a story about a gentleman who has been charged with identity theft. Some of us recognized his face but not either of the names mentioned in the article. After a bit of digging, we figured out he had an account with us until late 2014 and used to cash his payroll checks at one of our branches each week. The identification he provided to open his account appears to be different from either of the identities mentioned in the article. The payroll checks he cashed were issued by the same employer the article said he is employed by now but in a different name. Should we be contacting law enforcement with this information? And do we need to look at a potential SAR filing if the amount of checks cashed is $5,000 or over since he appears to have used a false identity to open his account with us? Any help will be appreciated.

I a case like this I would file for sure. This kind of information will be very helpful to law enforcement and since you are now aware of what now looks like suspicious activity you might be hard pressed explaining to examiners why you didn't file.

Would you make a call to local law enforcement or just file the SAR?

For something like this I would reach out to my local law enforcement contact and just let them know they should be seeing a SAR for "so and so". If you don't have an LE contact and are the BSA Officer I recommend making efforts to establish one.