How to Prevent Check Scams

I work for a large Chicago bank and one of the things we are taught are how to identify and prevent our customers from being scammed by a check scam. Unfortunately with the prevalence of e-mail and the ease one can counterfeit any type of check with a decent laser printer the numbers of our customers that fall victim to these predators is growing every day resulting in millions of lost dollars. I plan in this article to give you some of the easy ways you can recognize a check scam and the ways you can prevent yourself from being hooked.

I'm certain we have all received copies of the following e-mails in our in boxes. Here are a few of the ones I've received over the years but can easily pointed out as a scam:

Have you been informed you have won a foreign lottery or sweepstakes?

Have you been asked to assist someone get their money out of a another bank or country?

Have you been recently been overpaid for an item you recently purchased on E-Bay or some other auction site?

Did you or have you received a "Work at Home" notice saying that you could make bigger sums than working at your job?

Have you received an official document from your bank or connected to you PayPal account asking you for your account information or your passwords to verify your information?

All of these scenarios could mean that you have been targeted as a possible victim of a check scam or check fraud. The antominy of the Internet makes such scams easy to commit and hard to recognize. It's hard to sort out the real ones from the fake and the ease of these thieves to fake official web sites or documents makes it easy to commit crimes of this sort. Here are a few easy ways you can prevent yourself from being a victim of this kind of 21st Century con game.

Here are how most of these scams work:

First You receive a counterfeit check (money order,travelers check,cashers check,personal check or such) from someone you do not know, with instructions to deposit it in your account with precise instructions (mostly likely very complicated so you won't fully understand them) to wire the excess funds by wire transfer..