Better Business Bureau is warning the public to be cautious about fake cheque fraud, as criminals are utilizing modern technology to produce authentic looking cheques and letterhead to dupe people into their schemes.
This past month the BBB received a flurry of calls about an award letter from Ramada Plaza Resorts. This letter appears to be on the company’s letterhead and has a cheque purportedly from the Desjardins Group for $5094.00.
The letter states that the person is one of only “five prize winners.” Since February, BBB received dozens of calls from supposed winners.
From an independent investigation, the BBB has found that Ramada Plaza Resorts, Orlando/Ft. Lauderdale Vacations and Desjardins Group have no connection with this promotion circulating around Canada.
Daniel Lambert, vice-president of Ramada Plaza Resorts claims that his signature and name was scanned from one of his own advertisements.
Coincidently, around the same time of the award letters appearing in British Columbia, the real Ramada Plaza Resorts was exhibiting at a consumer trade show in Vancouver, offering a contest to “Win a Cruise to the Bahamas.”
“As is often the case with this type of scam, there are many things that make the letter and cheque appear legit,” says Lynda Pasacreta, BBB President and CEO. “People assume that the cheque and letter are real because they recently have seen or heard about the legitimate Ramada Plaza Resorts being in their local area. People want to believe they are winners.”
Unfortunately, the advent of high quality printers and scanners is making it easier for counterfeiters to produce official-looking cheques of all types and caliber.
The problem occurs when a consumer deposits the counterfeit cheque in a bank account.
Until the financial institution can confirm the funds have been “finally collected”, the consumer is responsible for any funds they may withdraw against that cheque deposit.
In most cases, victims report that they wired money to the cheque issuer only to find that the deposited cheque was uncollectible. This has happened to consumers who were told they won an international lottery and were advised to pay a clearance fee or taxes out of their “winnings” cheque.
• Start with the BBB and go to bbb.org for company reports
• Use directory assistance to get the telephone number of the financial institution that issued the cheque and call them to verify it
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