Payments fraud continues to grow and impact individuals and organizations alike. According to the Federal Trade Commission (Off-site), consumers reported losing more than $12.5 billion to fraud and scams in 2024, up 25% from the prior year. Additionally, check fraud was among the primary drivers of fraud events (Off-site) in 2024 despite declining check volumes.
The Federal Reserve has released two new toolkits — the Scams Mitigation Toolkit and Check Fraud Mitigation Toolkit. As online repositories of insights and downloadable resources, the toolkits are intended to support education and increase awareness about scams and check fraud, enable the payments industry to better identify and fight them, and foster industry collaboration on fraud and scams mitigation. These toolkits complement a Synthetic Identity Fraud Mitigation Toolkit that was released in 2022.
“The Federal Reserve encourages dialogue, education and problem-solving to advance payment security in its role as an industry convener, catalyst and provider of payment services. Scams and check fraud are two areas where education can make a real difference for the payments industry, businesses and consumers.”
Mike Timoney, vice president of payments improvement
Federal Reserve Financial Services
The initial releases of the Scams Mitigation Toolkit and Check Fraud Mitigation Toolkit focus on building foundational knowledge about different types of scams and check fraud, the tactics and human vulnerabilities that often enable these schemes to succeed, and common scenarios that financial institutions, service providers, other businesses and individuals may encounter.
Scams Mitigation Toolkit
A scam is defined as the use of deception or manipulation intended to achieve financial gain. This growing, evolving threat impacts individuals, businesses and entire economies. Consequences include financial, emotional and psychological tolls. In some cases, the stolen money fuels global organized crime.
The newly published Scams Mitigation Toolkit includes the following easy-to-navigate modules:
- Toolkit Module 1: Scam Basics — Explains what scams are, why you should care, and how and why scams occur.
- Toolkit Module 2: Scam Tactics and Impacts — Provides examples of how criminals fool us using technology (e.g., generative artificial intelligence, malware); force action through fear, threats and other tactics involving emotional manipulation; and use successful scams to perpetrate other types of fraud.
- Test Your Knowledge: Can You Spot the Scam? Test your ability to detect scams by reviewing three scenarios.
- Toolkit Module 3: Scam Scenarios — The ability to classify scams can help support consistent classification and reporting; assist with better identification of trends; and help improve detection and mitigation.
- Test Your Knowledge: Can You Classify These Scam Scenarios? Challenge yourself to accurately classify various types of scam examples using the ScamClassifierSM model, which uses a series of questions to differentiate and classify scams and attempted scams by category and type.
The toolkit also includes recommendations on how industry stakeholders can combat scams, from being both vigilant and skeptical, to understanding the technology and tactics scammers use — which in turn, can help potential victims pause to question unsolicited messages and offers.
Check Fraud Mitigation Toolkit
Check fraud is a financial crime that involves the unauthorized use of a paper or electronic check. Its consequences include financial losses; operational disruptions; and eroding trust in financial institutions due to negative customer experiences and questions about whether fraudulent checks should have been prevented, cases resolved more quickly, or if safer practices by the payments issuer could have resulted in more timely, accurate payments.
The newly published Check Fraud Mitigation Toolkit includes the following easy-to-navigate modules:
- Toolkit Module 1: Check Fraud Basics — An overview of check fraud methods, types and schemes (how the fraud is facilitated), all of which are important for prevention, detection, associate training, customer education and awareness.
- Toolkit Module 2: Check Fraud Schemes — Check fraud could be the result of authorized party fraud, where the account holder willingly sends or writes a check for the purpose of committing fraud — or unauthorized party fraud, where criminals use stolen checks or account information for their own financial gain.
- Toolkit Module 3: Preventing and Detecting Check Fraud — Explore this module to learn about how people, processes and technology can work together to mitigate check fraud; and to become familiar with common practices for preventing and detecting fraudulent checks.
The toolkit also includes recommendations on how industry stakeholders can combat check fraud, starting with understanding potential check vulnerabilities and fraud scenarios. Possibly the most important of all: arming financial institutions’ employees, customers and external partners with proactive education and knowledge about check fraud to help prevent, detect and mitigate it.
Stay Engaged
In the fourth quarter of 2025, second releases of these toolkits will offer additional insights and resources. Watch for more information and learning opportunities from the Fed as we continue to collaborate with the payments industry to address the growing threat of fraud.
These toolkits were developed by the Federal Reserve to help educate the industry about scams and check fraud. Insights for these toolkits were provided through interviews with industry experts, publicly available research and team member expertise. The toolkits are not intended to result in any regulatory or reporting requirements, imply any liabilities for fraud loss, or confer any legal status, legal definitions, or legal rights or responsibilities. While use of these toolkits throughout the industry is encouraged, their utilization is voluntary at the discretion of each individual entity. Absent written consent, the toolkits may not be used in a manner that suggests the Federal Reserve endorses a third-party product or service.