Q: I am told that a great deal of fraud happens to personal checks today. What's your advice for protecting my checks?

— L.L., San Francisco

A: Millions of Americans still rely on personal checks. American businesses and consumers used more than 36 billion of them last year alone.

But checks are no longer the most popular form of payment in the United States today. As of last year, more Americans used electronic forms of payments, such as credit or debit cards and online banking, than checks.

As a result of a new law implemented last year called Check 21, banks may exchange electronic images of checks without the hassle and expense of having to send them back to you. For banks, this means that they can clear checks electronically. For you, this means that you don't need to receive bank statements filled with canceled handwritten checks.

Yet check fraud continues to grow, with financial institutions and merchants losing almost $25 billion annually to bad checks or check fraud.

Keep these tips in mind to limit fraud:

• Guard your mail. Thieves have been known to rifle through mail, looking for envelopes that contain checks. Keep your mailbox locked, remove your mail from your mailbox every day, and deposit your outgoing mail in secure mailboxes or postal collection boxes.

• Protect your checking account information. Don't carry your checkbook with you. Don't disclose your checking account information over the telephone.

• Balance your checkbook monthly. Immediately report any lost or stolen checks. If you order new checks, make sure none were stolen in transit.

• Consider other forms of payment. For instance, pay bills online instead of by check. Or use credit cards, which limit your financial exposure in case of fraud to $50.

• Store your checks securely. Put new and canceled checks in a locked file cabinet or other secure place. Shred checks you no longer need to keep for tax or record-keeping purposes.

Eric Gertler, United Feature Syndicate

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