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Personal cheque scam

Residents have received letters containing fraudulent hand written personal cheques delivered through their front doors.

UK Postbox

A resident in Staffordshire is warning others after receiving the letter purporting to be from Bath Spa University enclosing a cheque for £2,500 made payable to her.

The University has received reports about this and have confirmed that it is a scam.

How the scam works

Once a recipient receives a letter with the enclosed cheque the fraudsters will then call claiming to have overpaid you.

The scammer will then ask you to refund the excess amount — usually through an online banking transfer or a wire transfer. The fraudsters are counting on you doing this before you discover that their cheque has bounced.

You should always be on your guard and be very wary of unexpected cheques in the post. Fraudsters use these cheques to take money from you, so you should never send any money in advance.

The simple rule remains: if a letter like this comes out of nowhere and seems too good to be true, there’s a good chance it could be a scam.

Read more about the scam on the Tamworth Herald website

Please note that Action Fraud is not responsible for the content of external websites.

To report a fraud and receive a police crime reference number, call Action Fraud on 0300 123 2040 or use our online fraud reporting tool.

Related links

Cheque overpayment fraud
Residents warned of fake tax letters
Beware of the census form scam

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