For years, we have all sold cheques to our customers. It's never been too difficult - we ask for the customer's account number, ask what colour of paper they prefer, design a heading for the cheque which usually includes the company logo, and then place the order. Today it's not quite that simple. Or, at least it shouldn't be.

With technology marching merrily on and being readily available to anyone, we must be very concerned about forgery and cheque fraud. Colour copiers and laser scanners make it easy for a criminal to duplicate a cheque. Laser printers are becoming so sophisticated that not only can the graphics be printed in colour, but the MICR encoding at the bottom of the cheque can also be placed on the cheque.

Certainly, the use of security features does not guarantee a cheque will not be forged. But at least it's a very inexpensive line of defence that could save your customer a lot of time and expense.

Several ways to make your documents secure are:

1. VOID pantographs in the background of the cheque. Through the use of screen and line densities, it's possible to design a cheque background that when copied on a colour copier, the words VOID or COPY appear in the body of the cheque. This method works well, but a smart forger can still drop out the background screen on a scanner and substitute it with a new one.

2. DOCUCHECK paper can be used. This is an Appleton Paper product. The paper contains a fourdrinier watermark, visible on both sides of the paper. The watermark resists photocopying and scanning. The paper also protects against manual erasing and chemical erasing. For example, if methanol is used to alter the document, blue stains appear on the paper. Fluorescent fibers are distributed randomly throughout the paper to make photocopying and scanning even more difficult. A black light can be used to see these fibers. When designing documents using DOCUCHECK paper, you should place an information bar on the form telling anyone who accepts it that the form has security features built into it. ie: BEFORE ACCEPTING THIS CHEQUE, PLEASE HOLD UP TO LIGHT AND EXAMINE FOR A GENUINE WATERMARK FRONT AND BACK. We feel that this is the most effective method to protect a form because the paper is only available to authorized roll manufacturers. It is not available in sheets.

3. MICRO LINE printing can be used. This is nothing other than type printed so small that it appears as a straight line. The only way it can be seen is with a magnifying glass. This works well for documents like gift certificates because the store employees can be given magnifying glasses to read the certificate.
Not all of the security items listed above are available to every forms manufacturer. The VOID panograph or Hidden Word as it's sometimes called, is a patented product.

Ask us about any one of these security features. We'd be glad to help you incorporate them into your customers forms.

#1 "DocuCheckTM" BASIC which is the standard for all our cheques. It contains fluorescent fibres (visible only under a black light) or #2 "DocuCheckTM" SUPER SECURITY which has the added features of a chainlink watermark and random visible fibres. We offer microline printing in the borders of our QE pantograph on either security paper choice.

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