Police alerting residents to be wary of sellling items on the Net

The Halton Regional Police Service would like to caution people when conducting business transactions over the Internet.

Although Fraud can take on many variations the Halton Regional Police Service has seen an increase in the victimization of individuals and businesses in relation to items being sold on the internet.

This is how the fraud takes place. The seller posts an item(s) for sale on the Internet. The buyer contacts the seller and arrangements are made to purchase the product. The buyer sends the seller a cashiers cheque or money order for an amount greater than the price of the merchandise.

The buyer then directs the seller to cash the cheque and wire the excess funds to either the buyer or a third party. The seller, believing the cheque to be genuine, deposits the cheque and then wires the amount of the overpayment as directed.

Overpayment Could Be A Fraud

It is usually after the funds have been wired that the cashier’s cheque or money order comes back as being counterfeit. The bank then holds the seller responsible for the amount of the fraudulent cheque, which leaves the seller defrauded both of the money and the product.

The Halton Regional Police have provided some guidelines to assist in minimizing your vulnerability:

• Be suspicious if the cheque you receive is greater than the agreed upon price for the merchandise. You may want to consider an online payment service.
• Current technology has improved the quality of counterfeit cheques and therefore makes them difficult to detect. Be wary if the cheque is drawn on an out of country bank as it may take a month before the counterfeit is realized.
• Never agree to accept a cheque for an inflated amount and to reimburse the balance.

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