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FinCEN Report Points to Convenience Check, SAR Reporting Concerns

By Brian Orsak

A federal agency issued a report Friday highlighting concerns over convenience checks and the way financial institutions categorize suspicious activity. The semi-annual report, The SAR Activity Review: Trends, Tips & Issues, was published by the U.S. Treasury Department's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network. The agency identified convenience checks, which are issued through a credit card company and linked to a credit card account, as high risk for identity theft because thieves can obtain a customer's information by simply stealing their mail. Nearly 15,000 suspicious activity reports (SARs) cited the checks between April 1, 1996 and March 31, 2007. SARs filed about...

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