Check fraud and forgery claims

How do we handle a forged or altered check claim with the affidavit, the item images and the return or recovery filed inside the UCC and Reg CC windows?

Run the claim as a case with two clocks. When a customer reports a forged, altered or counterfeit check, Callvu prefills the items from the account, classifies the claim by what happened to the check, sends the affidavit to the customer's phone for signature, collects the item images and the facts, files the return or the breach-of-warranty claim against the depositary bank inside the window that applies, routes the fraud team's decision, and records the credit, the recovery and the claim in the core.

In scopeComplex: multi-party handoffsCallvu moves: chase and verify, classify, decide, write back

Talk to an expert Try it in the sandbox

Last updated November 6, 2026.

The problem today

The affidavit is a PDF the customer prints, and by the time it is back the midnight deadline has passed.

Today, without Callvu

A customer finds a check on their statement they did not write, or a check they wrote for a small amount cleared for a large one. The agent emails an affidavit of forgery. The customer prints it, signs it, finds a notary, and returns it a week later. The fraud team then looks at the item, decides it is altered, and discovers the paying bank's return deadline is gone and the warranty claim against the depositary bank has its own window.

Check fraud is governed by the UCC: the bank's liability for paying a forged drawer's signature, its warranty claims for forged endorsements and alterations, the customer's duty to review the statement and report within the period the agreement and the statute set, and the one-year outside limit. Reg CC adds the returns and, since 2018, a warranty for remotely deposited checks that shifts the loss for duplicate presentment. Each claim type has its own window, and the first step is to know which type it is.

Check fraud is rising, and the claims that recover money are the ones filed fast with the right images.

How it runs

From the requestto the system of record.

A customer reports a forged, altered, counterfeit or stolen check in any channel. Callvu identifies the customer, records the report date, and opens the claim with the items in question.

Customer: Identifies the items, states what happened, signs the affidavit on their phone, and provides what the claim needs.
Fraud team: Reviews the items and the facts, decides the claim and the recovery path in the Decision Desk, and files what needs filing.
Deposit operations: Posts credits and reversals from the case and sees every claim with its windows.
Callvu: Prefills, classifies, chases the affidavit and facts, keeps the windows, routes the decision, files and records.

Prefill and classify
The items are picked from the account's paid items with their images (front and back). The claim is classified: forged drawer's signature, forged or missing endorsement, altered amount or payee, counterfeit item, or a check stolen before use. The classification sets which party bears the loss under the UCC, which claim or return applies, and its window.
Chase and verify
The affidavit for the claim type, prefilled with the items, is sent to the customer's phone and signed on a process-controlled screen, with a notarization step where the bank's policy requires it. The facts the claim needs (when the customer last had the checks, who had access, the police report where the policy asks) are collected with links. The customer's statement review date is checked against the reporting period.
Decide
The fraud team receives the case in the Decision Desk with the images, the affidavit, the classification and the days left on each window, and chooses among the allowed outcomes: credit the customer and pursue recovery, credit and close, deny with the reason (for example, a report outside the period or a customer-caused loss), or request more.
File and write back
The return (where the midnight deadline or an extended return applies) or the breach-of-warranty claim against the depositary bank is filed with the images and the affidavit, the customer's credit is posted, and the claim, the filing, the recovery status and the decision are written to the core and the fraud case. A stolen checkbook triggers a stop on the remaining items and, where the policy says, a new account.

Where it ends: The customer is credited or answered, the return or warranty claim is filed inside its window with the images and the affidavit, and the recovery is tracked on the case. The Decision Trace shows the classification and the windows; the Audit Trace shows every step and filing.

Runtime enforcement

What is enforcedwhile the work runs.

The regulations preloaded in Callvu Studio and the bank's own policies, applied as steps that run, not lines in a binder. A step that breaks a rule does not run, so a completed run was compliant.

Regulations

UCC Articles 3 and 4: forged signatures, alterations and warranties (UCC 3-401, 3-403, 3-407, 3-417, 4-207, 4-208, 4-401): A bank may charge a customer's account only for items properly payable; a check bearing a forged drawer's signature or an unauthorized alteration is not properly payable, so the paying bank bears that loss unless the customer's negligence contributed. For a forged endorsement or an alteration, the paying bank has a presentment warranty claim against the depositary bank and prior transferors. The claim type decides who bears the loss and against whom the bank recovers.
UCC 4-406: the customer's duty to examine the statement: The customer must examine the statement with reasonable promptness and report an unauthorized signature or alteration; a customer who fails to report within the period the agreement sets (often 30 or 60 days) may be precluded from asserting the item, and no claim lies more than one year after the statement was made available. The report date against the statement date is checked at intake.
Reg CC returns and the remote deposit capture warranty (12 CFR 229.30 to 229.34): The paying bank's return must meet the expeditious return and midnight deadline rules; a depositary bank that accepted a remote deposit warrants that the check will not be presented again, so a duplicate presentment claim runs against it. The classification picks the right path and window.
Reg E does not apply to paper checks; BSA suspicious activity reporting (31 CFR 1020.320) may: A check fraud claim is not an electronic fund transfer and is not under Reg E; a claim that meets the suspicious activity threshold opens the SAR process from the case.

Company policies

The claim types, the affidavit for each, the notarization rule and the recovery paths are the bank's check fraud policy and are applied by Callvu.
The affidavit is signed on a process-controlled screen; the customer does not print.
Every claim shows the days left on the return and warranty windows from intake.
A stolen checkbook stops the remaining items the same day.
The core is the system of record for the credit; the fraud case holds the claim, the images and the filings.

Controls

Item selection with images from paid items.
Claim classification setting loss allocation, path and window.
Affidavit signed with notarization where required.
Statement review date checked against the reporting period.
Decision Desk outcomes limited to the policy's options.
Filing with images and affidavit inside the window.
SAR referral where the threshold is met.

Clocks and deadlines

Midnight deadline and expeditious return (UCC 4-301 and Reg CC 229.31): A return must leave by the paying bank's midnight deadline; a late return claim has its own rules.
Customer reporting period (UCC 4-406 and the account agreement): The agreement's period from the statement date, and one year as the outside limit.
Warranty claim: Filed against the depositary bank promptly with the images and the affidavit; the case shows the days since presentment.

Documents and checks

The items with front and back images
The signed affidavit for the claim type, with notarization where required
The facts and the police report where collected
The statement review and report dates
The fraud team's decision with reason
The return or warranty claim filing and the recovery record

In the Decision Trace

The claim classification and the loss allocation it implies.
The reporting period check.
The fraud team's decision and its reason.
The filing path, the window and the filing time.

In the Audit Trace

The report and its time.
The affidavit signature and each upload.
The Decision Desk step with the person.
The credit, the filing and the recovery updates.

The handoff

Between the front doorand the back office.

The front door

Any channel. The affidavit and the facts are captured on the customer's phone on process-controlled screens.

The back office

The fraud team receives a classified case with the images, the affidavit and the windows, and files from it. Deposit operations posts from the decision.

The Decision Desk

The fraud team decides in the Decision Desk with the images, the affidavit, the classification and the days left, and only the allowed outcomes: credit and recover, credit and close, deny with reason, or request more.
A claim approaching a window is nudged and escalated before it closes.

Proof

In scope.Proof at scale, not one process at a time.

The kind of process Callvu runs in production for customers in this industry. Ask for a reference on this exact process. The results below are the industry's published proof; each claim code links to its record on agents.callvu.com.

More than 1,000 processes are live across Callvu customers.

Across Callvu customers

Banca Transilvania automated more than 100 workflows with Callvu.

BNK-04

Bank Leumi digitized all loan application and servicing workflows within six months, and dozens more processes since.

BNK-01

Questions

What buyers ask next,answered plainly.

Does the customer have to print the affidavit?

No. The affidavit for the claim type is prefilled and signed on the customer's phone, with a notarization step where the bank's policy requires one.

Why does the claim type matter?

Because the UCC allocates the loss differently for a forged drawer's signature, a forged endorsement and an alteration, and each has its own recovery path and window. The classification picks them at intake.

What if the customer reports late?

The report date is checked against the statement date and the agreement's period. The fraud team sees the result and decides with the outcomes the policy allows.

Is this a Reg E dispute?

No. Paper checks are outside Reg E; the claim runs under the UCC and Reg CC. An electronic transfer claim is a different process.

Related processes

Stop payment request Returned deposit item handling Account takeover recovery Try it in the sandbox All banking and credit unions processes

Bring this process, or the one that costs you most.

We build it against your policies and your systems, train your team and stay with you through launch. You are live in weeks.