Fraud continues to be an issue in Williston and identity theft and scams have impacted a local bank.

In an identity theft case, an American State Bank customer’s account and routing numbers were used on a false check. The culprit printed the account and routing numbers on a check, along with the name of a business, to make it look as if the check came from that business, said Vicki Kjellerson, ASB assistant vice president of human resources.

On Feb. 20, the check was cashed and the bank caught the error on Feb. 21 through the bank’s internal review system, Kjellerson said. It was fortunate the bank caught it that quickly, because such incidents often take longer to find, she said.

“We’re lucky it came through and we were able to catch it from day one,” Kjellerson said.

Identity theft is increasing throughout the nation as well as in North Dakota. The is perhaps due to the difficult economy, said Barrie Crandall, ASB assistant vice president of compliance. It’s tough to catch people because of the nature of the crime, as it’s hard to figure out just how the people committing the crimes obtain the information, Crandall said.

Crandall said if she was walking down the street and had her purse snatched, she may be able to give a description to police and she could tell the police what was in her purse.

But with an identity theft crime, there’s seldom a way for the victim to backtrack and explain how it could have happened.

“I’m not sure what drives it (identity theft). That’s part of our challenge, trying to stay on top of it,” Crandall said. “It’s really hard when you’re a victim and you have no idea.”

“It haunts a person, I think,” Kjellerson said.

Identity theft not only hurts the person whose information was stolen, it also hurts the business where the bad check was spent or cashed. One word of advice for the business receiving the check is to call the institution the check is drawn on. That way, the institution can verify whether it’s a bad or good check, Kjellerson said.

Many banks refuse to cash checks unless the customer has an account with that bank. People can cash checks, however, at various stores and bars, Crandall said, so these types of businesses should be careful when accepting checks.

With color printers and copiers, it’s easy to make checks that look and feel real, Crandall said.

It helps for employees of banks and other businesses to be familiar with their customers and verification of check information is beneficial, Kjellerson said.

“Verifying the account name and number is the only way to stop this before it’s too late,” Kjellerson said.

People with checking and savings accounts must be cautious with their bank information.

“Use caution; never give it (account information) out to anyone,” Kjellerson said. Crandall agreed, and added people should review their bank statements thoroughly and often to make certain the balances match up with what they have in the account.

ASB tries to network with other financial institutions regarding issues such as identity theft, trains employees on the issue and keeps brochures in the lobby to educate customers.

People committing fraud tend to work on peoples’ emotions by offering them deals that are indeed too good to be true. They tend to target people on low incomes, making them think that, for example, they’ve won money, Kjellerson said.

ASB is dealing with a recent scam in which customers and non-customers of the bank are being sent e-mails that ask people to update their personal information via a link that takes the user to a site that is not an American State Bank site.

A person’s financial institution won’t call or e-mail their customers to get that information, because the financial institution should have that information already, Kjellerson said.

If anyone receives an e-mail asking for personal information, he/she is advised to not to click on the link or send information, states the phishing alert on ASB’s Web site.