“Fraudsters are continually inventing new and ingenious methods to defraud the working public. While the deposit slip scam is an old one it has recently resurfaced, and FNB Namibia is aware that fraudulent payment confirmations are arising”, says Ingrid Kahona-Katjiukua, of FNB Forensics.
The typical approach involves fraudsters visiting a company to obtain a quotation in advance. “They will then make a cheque deposit to the company’s account and provide the deposit slip as proof of payment upon which the company releases the goods bought or quoted for. The cheque deposited is then ‘unpaid’ as a stolen cheque.”
She advises what customers should do to protect themselves:
- Customers are to be vigilant and exercise extreme caution when accepting deposit slip payment confirmations and should scrutinize the in-contact notifications they usually receive, carefully.
- Verify the authenticity of the deposit made with your bank and that the funds have been genuinely cleared before giving goods.
- Be aware that fraudulent deposits usually contain stolen cheques which are later returned as “unpaid”.
- Ask for the identification of the people you are transacting with and make copies thereof, if necessary obtain ownership (on the car disk) of the vehicle collecting the goods, as in most cases the vehicle number plates used are fake.
- Clients are to confirm payments with their branches, especially when dealing with strangers or wait until the cheque deposit is cleared before releasing goods.