Please, write a main discussion post about the below statement and respond to the two classmates posts attached. Thanks you!
"To reduce fraud, checks that utilize mechanical or electronic signature systems should not be honored."
Decide if you agree or disagree with this statement. State your decision and provide your reasoning for this week’s Discussion assignment.
Instructions for main post (Around 200 words) Please, write a main discussion post about the below statement: "To reduce fraud, checks that utilize mechanical or electronic signature systems should not be honored." Decide if you agree or disagree with this statement. State your decision and provide your reasoning for this week’s Discussion assignment. (Citations only needed for main post) Instructions for the two classmate responses (around 150 words each) Please, respond to the below two classmate main posts. (Please, the responses need to be a discussion, not an evaluation. You can agree with them and add/comment about their response.) Thank you Classmate post #1: Brittany Huston “Between the time a check is drawn and the time it reaches the drawee, the effectiveness of the check may be altered in some way” (Clarkson, Miller, Cross, 2017). Sometimes account may no longer have sufficient funds to pay the check. To avoid this situation the payee must have certified funds. Customers agreements with banks is to include sufficient funds. When the bank pays a check that has a forged signature it mostly the banks loss. Banks must recredit the customers account when it comes to forged signatures. Banks require customers with checking accounts to have a signature card to verify that the signature is genuine. The customer is obligated to report any forgery in signatures. The wrongdoers sometimes forge a series of checks. "To reduce fraud, checks that utilize mechanical or electronic signature systems should not be honored." To reduce fraud, it could be a good idea. The key word here is reduce, because no matter what new technology is put into place some individuals will always find a way around and still commit fraud. With technology advancing check writing is almost obsolete, but many organizations use digital signing for their financial transactions. Every organization should have check fraud prevention controls implemented. With this implemented it would definitely reduce fraud and help keep control over it at a minimum. References Clarkson, Cross, & Miller. (2017). Business Law. 14th Edition. Cengage Custom Classmate post # 2: Andrew Welfel I disagree, not from a theoretical standpoint but from a practical standpoint. Clarkson, Miller, & Cross (2018) cite UCC language that states, “A signature can be made by a device, such as a rubber stamp, or a thumbprint, and can consist of any name, including a trade or assumed name, or a word, mark, or symbol.” While unusual signatures can bring about some doubt, they are still technically legal. I see this discussion question as a comparison between signatures made by hand, and signatures made electronically or via stamp. Hand signatures can be forged. Using UCC law, one could theoretically draw a picture of an elephant as his or her signature. If we are examining signature fraud from a vacuum, signature by hand is not very secure. The same could be said for electronic signatures or stamps. When my wife and I got approved for an auto loan, we signed electronically via DocuSign. Anyone who got access to my email could have signed that document with no problem. Electronic signatures can be created and used through Microsoft Word and Adobe in less than five minutes. A few years ago, I had to process a special payroll for a client who had a group of employees do some extra work. They wanted physical paychecks, so I tallied up their pay, accounted for FICA and Federal withholding, and sent them out. A day later, I realized I had failed to sign their paychecks! I started calling them, concerned that they wouldn’t be able to cash the checks. Every single employee (there were 3), successfully cashed their check without any signature. To wrap this up, what’s the barrier for someone who wants to forge physical checks? They would need to steal them from an individual or a business, but would then have no problem committing the fraud. What’s the barrier for someone who wants to “forge” electronic signatures? They would need access to an individual’s email account or whatever electronic medium is being used. As someone with no experience hacking into computers, I actually think there are more protections afforded to electronic signature systems. That seems easier to me than stealing checks from an individual or a business. Either way, once a check has been signed (electronically or by hand), a bank is going to cash it. References Clarkson, Miller, & Cross. (2018). Business Law (14th ed.). Cengage Learning