Helping to build buyer confidence

Employing services from abroad scam

This scam is less likely to occur on a website but more likely from an email. It is targeted towards business and website owners and often comes from abroad.

The Scam itself is a form of money laundering using identity theft. 

How it works?

For this example I am going to use the wedding photographer scam

although it has been used on builders and estate agents plus other services. You receive an email or phone call informing you that your services are required at a rush wedding in the UK and they are abroad at the moment. They will send you a fraudulent cheque well in excess of the price you have quoted and ask you to cash it as soon as possible. When you enquire about the excess cash you will be told they got confused and sent the wrong amount but to go ahead and cash the cheque and then return the additional amount (usually a good few thousand pound). If you cash the fraudulent cheque it will usually appear in your bank as though it has cleared (usually 5 working days) especially if the victim of the original identity theft is unaware. If you then send the remainder back you will loose that value as the cheque will eventually be picked up in the system and the original check value will also be reclaimed from your account.