Shelley Polansky
Fake checks are used in a variety of frauds, from e m p l o y m e n t scams to prize and sweepstakes fraud. In all cases, victims deposit the check and send money back to scammers. The Better Business Bureau recently released a new report — “Don’t Cash That Check: Better Business Bureau Study Shows How Fake Check Scams Bait Consumers” — that looks at how fake checks dupe consumers.
Scammers often succeed because consumers don’t realize:
• Crediting a bank account does not mean the cashed check is valid.
• Federal banking rules require that when someone deposits a check into an account, the bank must make the funds available right away – within a day or two. Even when a check is credited to an account, it does not mean the check is good. A week or so later, if the check bounces, the bank will want the money back. Consumers, not the fraudsters, will be on the hook for the funds.
Cashier’s checks and postal money orders can be forged. A cashier’s check is a check guaranteed by a bank, drawn on the bank’s own funds and signed by a cashier. If a person deposits a cashier’s check, the person’s bank must credit the account by the next day. The same holds true for postal money orders. Scammers use cashier’s checks and postal money orders because many people don’t realize they can be forged.
Fraud employing fake checks is rapidly growing and costing billions of dollars. The number of complaints received by the Federal Trade Commission’s Consumer Sentinel database and the Internet Fraud Complaint Center more than doubled between 2014 and 2017.
BBB offers these tips in the event you have deposited a fake check into your account:
Notify your bank or the bank that appears to have issued the check.
File a complaint:
• Federal Trade Commission (FTC.gov), or call 877-FTC-Help
• Internet Crime Complaint Center, or IC3.gov
To read the entire investigative study, visit bbb.org.
~ Shelley Polansky, VP Communications, BBB Serving Northern Colorado and Wyoming.