CHEQUE mates

I was fortunate enough yesterday to get a slot on 2FM's Gerry Ryan show yesterday morning with his stand-in presenter Eoin Sweeney. One of the issues that a number of people contacted the show about was the level of cheque fraud. A lot of Irish people have been caught out by fraudsters using fake money drafts. Usually they are contacted about an item for sale on a website. The fraudster offers the seller a cheque for more than the asking price with the request that the excess be wired to their 'shipping agent.' It can take up to ten days for the bank to clear a money draft event though it is immediately credited to their account. Unfortunately people may not be aware of this and wire the 'excess' cash only to later find the cheque was bogus and the buyer has disappeared. Another version of the scam involves the fraudsters advertising some big ticket item like a car for an unbelievably low price. They'll spin a story to interested buyers such as: "My brother loved that car before he died of cancer. I just want to get rid of it- too many memories." But then because they have been let down by other buyers they want a small deposit up front ... Cue the disappearing act.