Patent ID: 7366339

Claim:
A fraud detection system for detecting whether information on a cheque has been improperly modified after an original preparation of the cheque, where the cheque is associated with a cheque type having pre-defined zones, said system comprising: (a) an issuance database for storing information associated with a cheque at the time of the original preparation of the cheque; (b) a scanned cheque database for storing a scanned cheque image of the cheque; (c) a detector module comprising: (i) a first optical character recognition engine coupled to the scanned cheque database for recognizing characters within the scanned cheque image and for determining whether the recognized characters match the characters associated with the cheque at the time of original preparation; (ii) a second optical character recognition engine coupled to the scanned cheque database for recognizing characters within the scanned cheque image, said second engine programmed to perform recognition at a slower rate than the first engine for determining whether the recognized characters match the characters associated with the cheque at the time of original preparation; (iii) a third optical character recognition engine coupled to the scanned cheque database for recognizing characters within the scanned cheque image and for determining whether the recognized characters match the characters associated with the cheque at the time of original preparation, said third engine being operated according to a set of default character recognition settings; (iv) a fourth optical character recognition engine coupled to the scanned cheque database for recognizing characters within the scanned cheque image, and for determining whether the recognized characters match the characters associated with the cheque at the time of original preparation, said fourth engine being programmed to enhance the resolution of the scanned cheque image prior to reading; said detector module directing the character recognition being conducted by at least one of the first, second, third and fourth engines to the pre-determined zones associated with the cheque type of the cheque; (d) a verification module for allowing manual verification of the scanned cheque image if none of said first, second, third and fourth engines has determined that the recognized characters match the characters associated with the cheque at the time of original preparation; and (e) a reporting module coupled to the detector module for compiling particulars concerning the matching results.