The Checkmate Illusion: A Manifesto Against Paper Checks and the Currency of Fraud is a blistering exposé of one of the most overlooked dangers in modern finance: the persistence of paper checks. In an age of encrypted transactions, real-time digital payments, and biometric security, banks still hand out paper slips that display the very keys to your financial life — your name, routing number, and account number — in plain text. This manifesto dismantles the illusion of safety surrounding checks, revealing how tradition, inertia, and profit keep this relic alive while exposing millions of people to fraud, overdrafts, and identity theft. Richard Sweeney shows how the clash between real-time digital systems (autopay, instant debit, online bill pay) and lagging paper float creates traps where responsible payers are punished. With urgency and clarity, the book argues that checks cannot be reformed — they must be eliminated. Through history, global comparisons, policy blueprints, and human stories, The Checkmate Illusion calls for nothing less than a national phase-out of paper checks. It is a demand for security, dignity, and sanity in the simple act of paying a bill.
