Counterfeit financial instruments are circulated in a variety of Internet scams. The ploy is always to get someone to cash them and then wire the money back to the person behind the scam.
In the past couple of weeks, readers and other sources have brought to my attention that counterfeit Visa Travelers Cheques are circulating.
Visa has provided resources to identify these instruments.
You can call them at 1-800-227-6811 to verify an item. This can also be done on-line, here.Visa also has a good interactive tool to identify the security features of the Visa Travelers Cheque, here.
The trick is to ALWAYS verify them before you negotiate them using your good name!
Some of the scams being used to trick people into cashing these items are known as work-at-home (job) scams, secret shopper, romance, lottery and auction scams.
A collective name for all of these scams that ask you to cash an item and send the money back to the scammer is called the advance fee (419) scam.
A lot of the sites dedicated to fighting scams are also seeing an alarming trend, which is that people are getting arrested for attempting to cash these items.
I recently had a conversation with the fine folks over at FraudAid about this trend.
A great (new) resource about all the counterfeit paper being circulated is FakeChecks.org.
People, who fall for these scams do so because they are lured with something that is too good to be true. The old saying is that if it is “too good to be true, it is NOT!”
Here are some other counterfeit instruments, I written about that are still in circulation:
Counterfeit MoneyGram Money Orders being passed via Internet Scams
Counterfeit Cashier’s Checks Fuel Internet Crime
American Express Gift Cheques Being Circulated in Internet Scams
Counterfeit Postal Money Orders Showing Up in IScams Again
Here is a picture of counterfeit Visa Travelers Cheques that were sent to someone about a week ago. They were sent from the United Kingdom, however the scammer wanted the money wired to Nigeria.
(Photograph courtesy of Raleigh)
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10 users commented in " Counterfeit Visa Travelers Cheques in circulation! "
Follow-up comment rss or Leave a TrackbackHello I was a cought in that situation my self today of this fraud stuff. 5/29/08 I recived 4 $5oo visa travelers checks and found out they were counterfit so I took them to the police as told by the bank to do and the police officer took my info but acted as if I was a part of it and wanted to know why someone would send me this out of the blue and I told him I dont know but if I was involved why would I be here to report it and I dont want any part of it and he was very mean and acted as if I was a part of this so now I dont know if I did the right thing now. What should I do to protect myself because I thought I was doing the right thing
I have received 7 of those Visa travelers checks. I burned them. Nothing to say anymore…
Hi, I got today 5 $500 Visa travelers cheques, what shud I do with them?
OMG i thought there something dodgy about this so i typed usa travellers check in google and found this website!! its actually the same check!! i was going to cash them in today, but i was late thank god what would of happened to me!?!?!?! thank you for this blog!! Paul
yes 4 of these were sent to me today they are exactly the same as your picture your site was very informative
this happened to me last month but i actually cashed them in my bank and sent the money and now a month on i am getting done by my bank for it even though i didnt do it through my account just the bureau de change within the bank …. but my arguement is surely the bank should hold some responsibilty for not realising they where fake ….. if they cant tell then how was i meant to ??? now the bank have kept all my wages for this month etc and quite honestly not accepting reponsibility for not checking themselves
I got this letter from men name DIMITRIOS BARTZIS, who weeks ego requested reservation for 3 people in our Guest house in Zakopane Poland. He came from vacationrentalpeople.com website. I made reservation for him and send 30% deposit request. He toled me that his boss send me $3000.00 check thinking I’m taking care of all travel needs for his group, so he included expenses for air tickets. He said I should keep the money for reservation, but send back to his agent the rest of it. This was really to much of stupidity for me. I’m very angry because I wasted a lot of time trying to accommodate him. So I make sure other people know the story.
This is his last letter, but I’m keeping all of them if any body would like to look at it.
He wrote:
Hello my good friend,
i was told the payment has been delivered to your address , please i
need to know if you have cash the traveller check. i look forward to
hear from you asap.
Best Regards.
Hi i put two of these in my bank today and they didnt cash over the counter they put them in my bank What do i do ?
I recieved a $100 visa travelers cheque it was fake. A short black man goes by the name mosely in the buford ga. area be careful. I have him on cameras his id is from Tn.
I was sent 15 checks at the amount $500.00 each and thy where all counterfietand thy where sent by Nelson Donald 1000 Hampton ST.
Lexington, N.C.
27295
My be fake ADDRESS?
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