With the rise of digital banking and online payments, the use of checks has undergone a massive shift. In 2021, the Federal Reserve processed 14.5 million checks per day, a dramatic drop from the daily 26.7 million daily it processed 10 years earlier.
The average dollar amount of checks went up during the same period—from $1,187 in 2011 to $2,395 in 2021.
With mail theft on the rise and more ways that fraudsters are modifying existing checks to display their names, checks are more vulnerable than ever to fraud even as their use declines.