The Financial Crimes Investigation (FCI) Branch of the Royal Bahamas Police Force (RBPF) is warning businesses to remain vigilant heading into the last week before Christmas, after it revealed that businesses in “the double digits” have fallen victim to the latest fraud ring.
Detective Sergeant Jared Turnquest from the FCI Branch said the most pressing matter the unit is dealing with involves fraudulent J.S. Johnson checks.
Speaking during an RBPF business crime prevention webinar, Turnquest said in the past few weeks the FCI Branch has received numerous reports from business establishments that customers have presented fraudulent J.S. Johnson checks to pay for merchandise.
“Right now, the number of businesses that have been affected are in the double digits at this time. In fact over the past view days more and more businesses have been contacting us. So what we have started to do in our office is to reach out to some of the businesses that we feel would probably be affected by this. And by taking that proactive approach we were fortunate enough that we were able to identify a few businesses that were contacted and the fraudulent transaction was avoided,” he said.
“In a few of those instances those businesses had not received notification from their banks at that point, so we had given them that head start. But at this point we are up into the double digits for businesses and we hope that by taking measures like this we can sort of prevent this from happening to any more businesses.”
Turnquest said police would like businesses to take note of this type of fraud, where the checks appear genuine and to not let their guards down even though this is the busiest time of year.
“The method that the culprits use are that at first a culprit would call into the business establishment ahead of time and would request a quote for merchandise. After that the business establishment would then draft an invoice,” he said.
“Within a day or two the customer or culprit would then present a fraudulent J.S. Johnson check typed in the name of the business establishment and the amount is already typed in. The amount would have already been quoted to the culprit from the day before. Right after that the merchandise is then loaded onto a vehicle or truck and then taken away.”
The police warned business owners to avoid becoming victims of this check fraud by firstly requiring customers to provide a name and/or company when they call in for a quote.
“It’s my understanding that not all people who call in for a quote would ultimately be customers, but in the meantime the businesses can try to have some kind of accountability or some level of identification by asking or requiring those persons calling in to provide a name or a business,” Turnquest said.
“Furthermore, we would ask that when the customer presents themselves to the business that they provide a valid government identification, so that in the event the check is fraudulent, or just for regular business practice if there is an issue with the actual order, you would have an identity of the customer who came in and conducted the transaction. You can record that identification either on the back of the check or you can record that in your internal records, so that you can have a record of the person associated with that transaction. “
Of equal importance, according to the detective, is that businesses verify the check issuer in those types of transactions.
“In some of these instances the culprits came to the businesses at later stages of the day right before closing time. We know a lot of times with businesses if they close at five o’clock, by 4:30 or quarter to five things are starting to shut down, so you’re not going to be as vigilant when it comes to your regular business practice. And with the culprits coming later on into the day it’s a lot more difficult for that business to reach out and check the check issuer, in this case J.S. Johnson,” Turnquest said.
“The next tip would be that we would ask the businesses to request the license plate numbers of the vehicles that are collecting these items, so that they can have some sort of record of who took the merchandise. Although these are examples or tips for fraud prevention, these are good tips for regular business practice in the event that the business got the order wrong or the item was sent to the wrong location.”
The post Police warn businesses over fraudulent check scheme appeared first on The Nassau Guardian.
source https://thenassauguardian.com/police-warn-businesses-over-fraudulent-check-scheme/
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