International cheque scam foiled

An international scam involving fake cheques and postal orders that were destined for London has been foiled by the government’s Serious Organised Crime Agency.

Investigations have been on-going for a month in Nigeria, and as a result £8 million worth of fake cheques and postal orders have been seized. The scam has been described as sophisticated by officials, and a number of people in Britain have been arrested for their involvement in the fraud.

According to reports around sixty arrests have been made in countries around the world in connection with the scam, including arrests in Spain, Canada, Nigeria, the United States, and the Netherlands. During the operation fake passports were also discovered in addition to the fake cheques and postal orders. Around three thousand forged cheques that were due to go to an address in London were seized, along with an additional fifteen hundred forged cheques going to other London addresses.

UK residents have to pay out billions of pounds each year because of fake cheques that are used to purchase goods or get cash, and then bounce. Some of the cheques that were seized as part of the operation were already filled in for amounts ranging between three and seven thousand pounds. One of the scams in which such fake cheques are used in where consumes are told that they have won money or inherited money, and are asked to send in a fee to make their claim. They then receive a fake cheque, which then bounces once the bank discovers that it is fake.

Another scam involves consumers being told that the cheques are work processing cheques, and they send in the amount of money to cover the cheque and then bank the cheque, which later bounces.

Tom Smith
11th November 2007

Tags: order, postal, cheques, international, scam, fraud, money