Police are warning people to be on the lookout for a ‘pre-pay’ scam after a man had fallen victim in Scotland.
The victim was looking at job adverts online and found one that appeared to be a regional mystery shopper company. After emailing the company he was sent £1930 in traveller’s cheques and was given the instruction to cash them in at his local bank. Once he had done this, he was then instructed to transfer a smaller amount totalling £1730 to an address abroad.
However he was later informed by his bank that the traveller’s cheques were fakes and that he now owed the bank the sum of money of around £1930. This scam is a variation of cheque overpayment fraud.
"Becoming more common"
A Police Scotland spokesperson said: “This type of pre-pay scam is becoming more common, and we are warning people to be on the lookout for scams similar to this. People should always be very cautious about transferring funds overseas to people that they don’t know. If it sounds too good to be true, then it probably is.”
For further information visit the Scotland Police website.
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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.
