The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) has learned that counterfeit cashier's checks drawn on City Bank, Hawaii, Honolulu, Hawaii, are currently in circulation. All of the known counterfeit items include the bank's routing number of 121301691. The counterfeit items, while laid out similarly to the bank's authentic instruments, utilize different fonts and have a "plain" appearance. Attached for your review is an example of a counterfeit item.

Any information you have about this matter should be brought to the attention of:

Ms. Cindy M. Ching
Loss Prevention Manager
City Bank, Hawaii
2969 Mapunapuna Place, Suite 110
Honolulu, Hawaii 96819
Telephone: (808) 837-8577
FAX: (808) 837-8569

Counterfeit official checks drawn on First Republic Bank, Los Angeles, California, and payable through Bank of America, Chicago, Illinois, are also in circulation. The items bear First Republic Bank's routing number of 071923284. The reported counterfeit items, while similar in design to the genuine instrument, are smaller in size (length), do not display the branch's telephone number and incorrectly note the processing bank as "Bank of America Illinois" instead of "Bank of America." An example of a counterfeit item and a copy of a genuine cashier's check (void) are attached for your review.

Any information you have about this matter should be brought to the attention of:

Ms. Sara Kurth
Assistant - Operations Risk Management
First Republic Bank
1888 Century Park East
Los Angeles, California 90067
Telephone: (310) 407-7026
FAX: (310) 407-1300

In addition, counterfeit cashier's checks drawn on Frost National Bank, San Antonio, Texas, and payable through Huntington National Bank, Columbus, Ohio, are in circulation. The items bear Frost National Bank's routing number of 044015543. The items appear to be quality forgeries. However, several differences have been noted, including the use of different fonts, the absence of the bank's three-horse logo on some items, and the lack of a watermark on the back of the counterfeit checks. Attached for your review are an example of a counterfeit instrument and a copy of an authentic cashier's check (void).

Any information you have about this matter should be brought to the attention of:

Ms. Sandy Sullivan
SVP - Fraud Management
Frost National Bank
P.O. Box 1600
San Antonio, Texas 78296
Telephone: (210) 220-5935
FAX: (210) 220-5855

Information about these financial institutions or instruments may be forwarded to the FDIC's Special Activities Section, 550 17th Street, NW, Room F-4040, Washington, DC 20429, or transmitted electronically to alert@fdic.gov.

For your reference, FDIC Special Alerts may be accessed from the FDIC's Web site at www.fdic.gov/news/news/SpecialAlert/2003/index.html. To learn how to automatically receive FDIC Special Alerts, Financial Institution Letters and other announcements through e-mail, please visit www.fdic.gov/news/news/announcements/index.html.

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