Two years after a controversy arose because Bank of America required non-customers to get fingerprinted before cashing checks, one legislator wants to make sure it can’t happen again.Paper checks are a very insecure method of conducting financial transactions and this is true for both parties to the transaction. The person writing the check gives away a piece of paper with a substantial amount of the information necessary for identity theft and the person (or entity) receiving the check takes certain risks of non-payment.
“The banks are saying ‘We need this to get the criminals,’ but in the process they’re treating all the citizens of New Hampshire as criminals,” said Rep. James Webb, R-Derry.
He is co-sponsor of a bill, HB 1262, “prohibiting banks from requiring blood samples, fingerprints, and DNA samples in order to complete a banking transaction.”
Check fraud is rampant and without a fingerprint, enforcing the laws against it is extremely difficult.
A person with no relationship to a bank that wants a bank to hand them cash in exchange for a piece of paper is going to be required to leave enough information behind to give the police a reasonable chance of tracking them down in the event they are perpetrating a fraud. If it's not a fingerprint, it'll be something else such as a scan of a drivers license. A person unwilling to do that either shouldn't take a check or they should be prepared to pay fees in order to assume part of the risk of a bogus transaction.
