Cyber-crime is an ongoing threat and here at St Colman’s Credit Union, we want to keep our members safe. We will be publishing a monthly blog on the various types of Cyber Crime and this month we will focus on Overpayment Scams.
There has been an increasing trend recently in Overpayment Fraud.
An Overpayment Fraud happens when a member receives a cheque for payment of services or for the sale of goods. The person making the payment by cheque writes it for an amount larger than they owe (i.e. they make an overpayment). They then request the member to send the overpayment back by SEPA Credit Transfer to an account specified by the originator of the cheque. This is done before the cheque clears, which is usually returned unpaid or is written from a bogus account, leaving you, the member with a loss of funds. The fraud is typically perpetuated with cross-border cheques as these cheques take longer to clear and can be ‘returned unpaid’.
When you lodge a cheque with us, we will always advise you that the lodged cheque will take some time to clear and that funds in relation to the lodged cheque will not be accessible until the cheque has cleared.
Under no circumstances should you return money if requested to do so by the cheque originator until you are satisfied that the cheque has been cleared and funds have been released on your Credit Union account.
We will ensure that cleared funds are not released on your account until we have received confirmation from the Bank that the cheque sent for collection has been cleared.
For more information relating to Overpayment Scams and how to prevent them, please visit:
www.fraudsmart.ie