GUELPH POLICE SERVICE
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The Guelph Police Service consistently receives complaints from citizens of fraud stemming from cheque scams. The scams occur through victims being approached both in person and online.
In person, the suspect usually approaches the victim and asks for them to cash a cheque into the victim’s bank account. They use excuses, such as not having a bank account. The suspect then asks the victim to withdraw those funds and will often provide the victim with a small amount of cash as payment for depositing the cheque.
Online, the suspects contact victims through various mediums, with a scheme that ultimately results in the victim being paid by or supplied a cheque to be deposited into their account. The schemes can be for online employment, payments for items listed on classified sites, or advance fees/overpayment for products and services.
In both cases, the cheques are usually either stolen, counterfeit or are drafted from accounts with insufficient funds.
Guelph Police suggest that you do not cash or deposit cheques that are drafted to someone else.
Cheques (unless confirmed to be certified) can take weeks to actually clear the accounts, which means fraudulent cheques may not be identified as fraud until after the victim has already paid the suspect.
The best defence against this fraud is to not accept or deposit cheques from unknown persons. If you deposit a cheque into your account and the cheque does not clear, you will most likely be held accountable by your financial institution for the stolen funds.
Anyone who has been a victim of a cheque scam are advised to contact their financial institution and the police.
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