Federal Reserve expands Scams and Check Fraud Mitigation Toolkits

The Federal Reserve encourages dialogue, education and problem-solving to advance payment security in its role as an industry convener, catalyst and provider of payment services. Now, the Fed is working to foster fraud and scams awareness and education with expanded information in its Scams Mitigation Toolkit (Off-site) and Check Fraud Mitigation Toolkit (Off-site) published in summer 2025.

Each of these toolkits have added brief educational videos to bring common scam and check fraud tactics to life. The three modules in the Check Fraud Mitigation Toolkit — on check fraud basics, check fraud schemes, and preventing and detecting check fraud — now offer new downloadable resources, as well as new fraud scenarios in the check fraud interactive assessment. In the Scams Mitigation Toolkit, explore new downloadable resources and three additional modules about scam prevention and detection; the ScamClassifier^℠ model, which supports consistent and detailed classification, reporting, analysis and identification of scams; and scam information sharing to help disrupt criminals’ schemes.

For more information, visit FedPaymentsImprovement.org (Off-site).

These toolkits were developed by the Federal Reserve to help educate the industry about scams and check fraud. Insights for these toolkits were provided through interviews with industry experts, publicly available research and tea m member expertise. The toolkits are not intended to result in any regulatory or reporting requirements, imply any liabilities for fraud loss, or confer any legal status, legal definitions, or legal rights or responsibilities. While use of these toolkits throughout the industry is encouraged, their utilization is voluntary at the discretion of each individual entity. Absent written consent, the toolkits may not be used in a manner that suggests the Federal Reserve endorses a third-party product or service.