What is a Raised Check?

A raised check is a check that has had its payment amount fraudulently increased. For example, someone could manually alter a check payable for $100 by adding a zero, thereby making the payable amount $1,000. To guard against this, checks require that the maker also state the payable amount in writing. Thus, the person attempting to alter the payable amount in the preceding example from $100 to $1,000 would also have to somehow alter the written payable amount of “one hundred” dollars to instead read “one thousand” dollars, which is much more difficult than altering the numeric value. When a check is submitted where the numeric and written values differ, the paying bank will pay the written amount, since it more clearly states the intention of the maker.

Raised Check Controls

There are detective and preventive controls that can minimize the risk of loss associated with raised checks. These controls are as follows:

Detective controls. When conducting a bank reconciliation, one of the outcomes will be a listing of any checks processed by the bank for amounts that differ from what you have in your records. Always review these differences to see if they were a simple recordation mistake by the bank, or a raised check that indicates the presence of fraud.
Preventive controls. Always state the payable amount in writing on every check issued, since this line item supersedes any changes to the numeric amount. Also, enter into a positive pay agreement with your bank, so that it will reject any presented checks that have amounts on them that differ from what you sent to the bank.