Minnesotans filed 15,601 fraud reports in 2026 with total reported losses of $86.5 million and a median loss of $288, according to figures the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency published on October 7. The OCC attributes the numbers to the Federal Trade Commission’s Consumer Sentinel Network.
The same day, Comptroller Jonathan V. Gould announced a new tool that lets community bankers report suspected payments fraud directly to an OCC fraud taskforce, according to the agency’s news release 2026-86.
What the Minnesota numbers measure
The figures sit in a table the OCC titled “Minnesota Fraud Facts for 2026.” The FTC collects the underlying complaints through Consumer Sentinel, the database of fraud reports that consumers and law enforcement file. The OCC does not say whether the 2026 count runs through a particular month.
These are reported losses, not confirmed ones. A median of $288 means half of the reports describe a loss at or below that figure, which is why the total of $86.5 million can be driven by a smaller number of very large cases. For a Minnesota household, the open question is what to do in the first hours if a check, transfer or card payment turns out to be fraud, and who needs to hear about it first. The answers come from the bank and the FTC, covered below.
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The OCC adds a longer trend. Non-mortgage fraud reports in Minnesota more than doubled between 2020 and 2024, and suspicious activity report filings related to check fraud rose nearly 300 percent over the same stretch.
A bank-to-regulator line for suspected payments fraud
Gould spoke at a community bank panel in Minneapolis on October 6, and the announcement followed in the October 7 release. The tool is for community bankers and covers suspected payments fraud involving institutions the OCC regulates. The release does not give the tool a name or say how it works.
That detail matters for customers in one way. A report from a bank goes to the regulator’s fraud taskforce, not to the customer, and it does not replace the customer’s own report. A person whose account was drained still has to contact the bank and file their own complaint.
The release also points to OCC Bulletin 2026-30, a July 9 notice about FinCEN guidance on how banks can voluntarily share information about suspected fraud with each other. The bulletin says banks may share items such as video footage, IP addresses and fraud indicators like a new payee followed by a large transfer.
Where payments fraud shows up for a household
Payments fraud covers checks, wires, bank transfers and card payments that a criminal initiates or redirects. Check fraud is the category the OCC singles out, with the nearly 300 percent rise in related suspicious activity reports between 2020 and 2024.
For someone living on a fixed income, the practical exposure is a washed or altered check, a transfer sent to a scammer who posed as a bank or a government agency, or a payment diverted from its real payee. The speed of the response often decides how much, if any, comes back.
What Treasury’s payment screening adds
The release also describes the Treasury Department’s Do Not Pay service. In the last fiscal year Treasury screened more than 1.1 billion federal payments totaling about $3.7 trillion, according to the OCC, and it identified and returned about 13,500 payments totaling $175 million that would have gone to deceased individuals.
Treasury’s own Do Not Pay page says the service gives federal agencies and federally funded state programs data tools to check a recipient’s identity and eligibility before a payment goes out. It reports $11.7 billion in potential fraud and improper payments prevented, detected or recovered in fiscal 2025.
Those are government payments leaving agencies, not money in a customer’s own account. They show where regulators are putting their effort, which is on stopping payments before they leave and on sharing information between banks.
What the Federal Trade Commission says to do after a payment
The FTC’s guidance on what to do after a scam payment is specific to how the money moved. For a bank transfer, including Zelle, it says to report it to the bank or credit union immediately and ask the bank to reverse the transfer. For a debit card, it says to report it to the bank or credit union immediately and ask for a refund.
For a gift card, the instruction is to contact the card issuer immediately, using the number on the back of the card, and to keep the card and the receipt in case they are needed to follow up on the claim. For a wire, the instruction is to report it to the wire transfer company immediately, say the payer was tricked into sending the money and ask for a refund. The page also points people to ReportFraud.ftc.gov to report a scammer to the FTC.
The OCC release adds no consumer tips of its own. It links to the agency’s consumer pages and to HelpWithMyBank.gov, which lists fraud and scams among its help topics and gives a customer assistance line at 1-800-613-6743, Monday through Friday, 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Central.
Fraud already drained the account, so what comes first?
The FTC’s own steps all start with the same word, immediately. A transfer reported late may not be reversible, and a median loss of $288 can be the difference between a bill paid and a bill missed for someone on a fixed income.
The Senior Fraud Defense & First-Hour Recovery Kit puts the first-hour recovery plan in order, so the calls to the bank and the report happen in a sequence. It also includes a fraud evidence and report log for the dates, amounts and reference numbers a bank or investigator will ask for.
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This article was produced with AI assistance and edited for accuracy against the sources linked above.
