The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
Submitted by Flin Flon RCMP Flin Flon RCMP have received a number of cheque overpayment fraud reports. Police want to ensure that the public are aware of this scam by providing the following information: The overpayment scam is a type of fraud where you are receiving a cheque for something you've sold. You receive a counterfeit cashier's cheque, personal cheque, or corporate cheque from the "buyer" in an amount that is greater then the amount you are owed. You, the seller, are then asked to deposit the cheque and wire the excess funds immediately back to the buyer or the buyer's agent or shipper. The cheque you deposit is then bounced and you are responsible for repayment of the full amount of the bounced cheque. To protect yourself against this sort of scam, never agree to a deal in which the buyer wishes to issue a cheque for more than the agreed price and expects you to reimburse the balance. The scammers use a variety of excuses to explain this overpayment, but any such excuse should be treated with the utmost suspicion. The most recent events of this nature that Flin Flon RCMP are seeing involves sales over the website Kijiji. The cashier's cheques people are receiving are from banks not represented here in Flin Flon and are of very high visible quality. These fraudulent cheques have been coming in for $2,000 over the agreed purchase price and the excess is being asked to be wired to Paris, France. Lastly, the sellers have not been receiving notification by the purchaser of the overpayment until the fraudulent cheque arrives with a letter of instruction of what to do with the overage. If you are, or suspect you are, the victim of a fraud of this nature: Do not cash the cheque (cashing one of these fraudulent cheques leaves you liable for the full amount). Do not ship the item. Do not have any further contact with the purchaser. Immediately report the incident to "The Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre" at toll free 1-888-495-8501, toll free fax 1-888-654-9426, e-mail [email protected]. All internet/computer, cheque, phone or personal fraud should be reported immediately to the Canadian Anti-fraud Centre.
