The U.S. Secret Service is investigating a series of counterfeit Northwestern checks that have surfaced at banks both abroad and in the United States, police said Thursday.

Five checks bearing NU’s logo have been reported as counterfeit after an unknown individual attempted to cash them in Africa, Taiwan, Australia and New York, said Sgt. Tom Branick of University Police.

The checks were written for an undisclosed amount, but NU did not lose any money because none of the banks where the checks were presented honored them, said UP’s Detective Ron Godby, the detective who worked briefly on the case before it was referred to the Secret Service.

“Northwestern is not a victim,” he said.

The first attempt to cash one of the fraudulent checks occurred Jan. 24, but the checks date back to November, Branick said.

Employees in NU’s Office of Accounting Services, 619 Clark St., discovered the discrepancy Feb. 15 after a company in New York called the university to verify the number on a check that an unidentified individual had attempted to cash, Branick said.

When the check number did not match any of the university’s records, the incident was reported to UP, Branick said. After further investigation, accounting office employees discovered four additional checks with phony numbers that failed to process correctly.

UP referred the incident to the Chicago office of the Secret Service, which has jurisdiction in all monetary matters under federal bank fraud statutes. Godby said UP is no longer directly involved in the case, and he declined to comment while another agency investigates it.

A special agent for the Secret Service said the agency could not confirm Thursday if it had received the case.

Lt. Nicholas Parashis of UP said the police department refers all cases involving counterfeit money or forged checks to the Secret Service.

“It’s not an everyday occurrence,” he said. “But it’s not the first time we’ve experienced something like this.”

This crime was unusual because of the number of checks counterfeited and the amount for which they were written, he said. This makes the case more serious than others the university has dealt with, he said.

Parashis declined to specify the exact amount for which the checks were written.

NU Vice President for University Relations Alan Cubbage was unavailable for comment Thursday.