Banking system controlled responsive to data bearing records

A method comprising:

• a) through operation of at least one processor, causing a card reader to read card data from a user card, wherein the card data corresponds to a financial account, wherein the at least one processor is operative to cause a financial transfer at least one of to and from a financial account corresponding to the card data, wherein the at least one processor is in operative connection with a check acceptor, wherein the check acceptor is configured to receive financial checks that include thereon magnetic ink character recognition (MICR) symbols, wherein the check acceptor includes at least one magnetic sensor and at least one transport;
• b) through operation of the at least one processor, causing the check acceptor to scan a check, which scan includes the at least one transport moving the check adjacent the at least one magnetic sensor and the at least one magnetic sensor generating electrical signals corresponding to the presence of magnetic indicia on the check;
• c) through operation of the at least one processor, determining locations of a plurality of zones on the check, which located zones include a MICR zone that includes a plurality of MICR characters therein, and which located zones include at least one further zone that does not include any MICR characters therein;
• d) responsive to the electrical signals corresponding to the presence of magnetic indicia on the check, through operation of the at least one processor determining for each located zone on the check whether the zone is dirty or clean, wherein a dirty zone corresponds to a zone that includes a detected amount of magnetic indicia that is above a predetermined threshold for the respective zone, wherein a clean zone corresponds to a zone that includes either no detected magnetic indicia or a detected amount of magnetic indicia that is below a predetermined threshold for the respective zone;
• e) through operation of the at least one processor, determining a probability associated with the check being fraudulent responsive to whether each located zone on the check is determined to be clean or dirty.

Apparatus comprising:

• a card reader, wherein the card reader is operative to read card data from a user card, wherein the card data corresponds to a financial account;
• a check acceptor, wherein the check acceptor is configured to receive and scan financial checks that include thereon magnetic ink character recognition (MICR) symbols,
• wherein the check acceptor includes:
• at least one magnetic sensor,
• at least one transport,
• wherein the at least one transport is operative to move a check adjacent to the at least one magnetic sensor,
• wherein the at least one magnetic sensor is operative to generate electrical signals corresponding to the presence of magnetic indicia on the check;
• at least one processor,
• wherein the at least one processor is in operative connection with the card reader and the check acceptor,
• wherein the at least one processor is operative to cause a financial transfer at least one of to and from a financial account corresponding to the card data,
• wherein the at least one processor is operative to determine locations of a plurality of zones on the check, which located zones include a MICR zone that includes a plurality of MICR characters therein, and which located zones include at least one further zone that does not include any MICR characters therein,
• wherein responsive to the electrical signals corresponding to the presence of magnetic indicia on the check, the at least one processor is operative to determine for each located zone whether the zone is dirty or clean,
• wherein a dirty zone corresponds to a zone that includes a detected amount of magnetic indicia that is above a predetermined threshold for the respective zone,
• wherein a clean zone corresponds to a zone that includes at least one of no detected magnetic indicia and a detected amount of magnetic indicia that is below a predetermined threshold for the respective zone,
• wherein the at least one further zone includes a leading blank zone and a trailing blank zone located respectively adjacent opposed sides of the check, wherein the MICR zone extends adjacent a bottom edge of the check intermediate of the leading blank zone and the trailing blank zone, wherein the at least one processor is operative to determine that the check has a relatively higher probability of being fraudulent than non-fraudulent responsive at least in part to the at least one processor determining that at least one of the leading blank zone and the trailing blank zone is a dirty zone.

Apparatus comprising:

• a card reader, wherein the card reader is operative to read card data from a user card, wherein the card data corresponds to a financial account;
• a check acceptor, wherein the check acceptor is configured to receive and scan financial checks that include thereon magnetic ink character recognition (MICR) symbols, wherein the check acceptor is operative to scan checks with different relative sizes,
• wherein the check acceptor includes:
• at least one magnetic sensor,
• at least one transport,
• wherein the at least one transport is operative to move a check adjacent to the at least one magnetic sensor,
• wherein the at least one magnetic sensor is operative to generate electrical signals corresponding to the presence of magnetic indicia on the check;
• at least one processor,
• wherein the at least one processor is in operative connection with the card reader and the check acceptor,
• wherein the at least one processor is operative to determine a size of a check,
• wherein the at least one processor is operative to cause a financial transfer at least one of to and from a financial account corresponding to the card data,
• wherein the at least one processor is operative to determine locations of a plurality of zones on the check, which located zones include a MICR zone that includes a plurality of MICR characters therein, and which located zones include at least one further zone that does not include any MICR characters therein,
• wherein responsive to the electrical signals corresponding to the presence of magnetic indicia on the check, the at least one processor is operative to determine for each located zone whether the zone is dirty or clean,
• wherein a dirty zone corresponds to a zone that includes a detected amount of magnetic indicia that is above a predetermined threshold for the respective zone,
• wherein a clean zone corresponds to a zone that includes at least one of no detected magnetic indicia and a detected amount of magnetic indicia that is below a predetermined threshold for the respective zone,
• wherein the at least one processor is operative to determine the predetermined thresholds for each respective zone responsive at least in part to the determined size of the check,
• wherein the at least one processor is operative to determine that the check is potentially fraudulent responsive at least in part to whether each located zone on the check is determined to be clean or dirty.

A method comprising:

• a) through operation of at least one processor, causing a card reader to read card data from a user card, wherein the card data corresponds to a financial account, wherein the at least one processor is operative to cause a financial transfer at least one of to and from a financial account corresponding to the card data, wherein the at least one processor is in operative connection with a check acceptor, wherein the check acceptor is configured to receive financial checks that include thereon magnetic ink character recognition (MICR) symbols, wherein the check acceptor includes at least one magnetic sensor and at least one transport;
• b) through operation of the at least one processor, causing the check acceptor to scan a check, which scan includes the at least one transport moving the check adjacent the at least one magnetic sensor and the at least one magnetic sensor generating electrical signals corresponding to the presence of magnetic indicia on the check;
• c) through operation of the at least one processor, determining locations of a plurality of zones on the check, which located zones include a MICR zone that includes a plurality of MICR characters therein, and which located zones include at least one further zone that does not include any MICR characters therein, wherein the at least one further zone includes a leading blank zone and a trailing blank zone located respectively adjacent opposed sides of the check, wherein the MICR zone extends adjacent a bottom edge of the check intermediate of the leading blank zone and the trailing blank zone;
• d) responsive to the electrical signals corresponding to the presence of magnetic indicia on the check, through operation of the at least one processor, determining for each located zone on the check whether the zone is dirty or clean, including determining that at least one of the leading blank zone and the trailing blank zone is a dirty zone, wherein a dirty zone corresponds to a zone that includes a detected amount of magnetic indicia that is above a predetermined threshold for the respective zone, wherein a clean zone corresponds to a zone that includes at least one of no detected magnetic indicia and a detected amount of magnetic indicia that is below a predetermined threshold for the respective zone;
• e) through operation of the at least one processor, determining that the check has a relatively higher probability of being fraudulent than non-fraudulent responsive at least in part to the at least one processor determining that at least one of the leading blank zone and the trailing blank zone is a dirty zone in (d).

A method comprising:

• a) through operation of at least one processor, causing a card reader to read card data from a user card, wherein the card data corresponds to a financial account, wherein the at least one processor is operative to cause a financial transfer at least one of to and from a financial account corresponding to the card data, wherein the at least one processor is in operative connection with a check acceptor, wherein the check acceptor is configured to receive financial checks that include thereon magnetic ink character recognition (MICR) symbols, wherein the check acceptor includes at least one magnetic sensor and at least one transport, wherein the check acceptor is operative to scan checks with different relative sizes;
• b) through operation of the at least one processor, causing the check acceptor to scan a check, which scan includes the at least one transport moving the check adjacent the at least one magnetic sensor, and the at least one magnetic sensor generating electrical signals corresponding to the presence of magnetic indicia on the check;
• c) through operation of the at least one processor, determining locations of a plurality of zones on the check, which located zones include a MICR zone that includes a plurality of MICR characters therein, and which located zones include at least one further zone that does not include any MICR characters therein;
• d) through operation of the at least one processor, determining a size of the check;
• e) through operation of the least one processor, determining predetermined thresholds corresponding to an amount of magnetic indicia for each respective zone responsive at least in part to the size of the check determined in (d);
• f) responsive to the electrical signals corresponding to the presence of magnetic indicia on the check, through operation of the at least one processor determining for each located zone on the check whether the zone is dirty or clean, wherein a dirty zone corresponds to a zone that includes a detected amount of magnetic indicia that is above the predetermined threshold for the respective zone determined in (e), wherein a clean zone corresponds to a zone that includes at least one of no detected magnetic indicia and a detected amount of magnetic indicia that is below the predetermined threshold for the respective zone determined in (e);
• g) through operation of the at least one processor, determining that the check is potentially fraudulent responsive at least in part to whether each located zone on the check is determined to be clean or dirty.