NOt sure where to post this, so went to general. What can we give to our local authorities (city police) when we have possible fraud on a checking account. They have not requested via subpeona or other court document. I don't want to disclose protected private information but do want to give them a copy of the checks we feel may be fraudulent. We don't know if the customer is playing games with us or if this truly is some fraud against them. I know this doesn't come under the Right to Financial Privacy Act but am not sure how much info I can give.

Thanks for any guidance.

Are you talking about cleared checks, or deposited checks?

If you mean that suspicous items have cleared the account, then you need to confirm whether they were authorized by your customer. If the customer did not authorize them, then you should obtain a forgery affidavit and can then file a report with the police for the bank's loss.

If you mean that suspicious items have been deposited and/or returned against the account, you need to verify with the maker and/or paying bank whether the items are in fact fraudulent. Then you can decide how to approach your customer and what information you should report to law enforcement.

In either case, if you are not able to confirm that the items themselves are fraudulent, but still feel that the activity is suspicious, consider filing a SAR (if the amount involved meets the reporting threshold).

The account had been closed several years ago, however, last week the consumer had requested that they wanted to reopen the account. When the account was closed, we had to write off an overdrawn balance. We did not activite the account, but now have checks attempting to clear. Some of the signatures look like the previous account holder's signature and some do not. We have fraud but don't know if it is by the account holder or not. So we may have the fraudster signing the fraudulent activity form or may not. Would you still try to get the form signed even though they are not a customer anymore or just turn the information over to the police.

OK - if I understand correctly, what you are concerned about is checks being written on a closed account; and you are not sure if they are being written by the previous owner, or someone else.

Your bank is not suffering a loss from this activity, so really you have nothing to report to law enforcement. The losses will be suffered by merchants and/or other financial institutions, and they will make the decision whether to file a police report. Law enforcement may then come to you with a subpoena or search warrant for more information. I would not give anything to the police until that happens. (You can file a SAR, if the amounts involved with this activity warrant.)

In the meantime, if your former customer had checks stolen, they should also file a police report and may come to you for a forgery affidavit if merchants try to collect on unauthorized items.