WARNING ON FRAUDULENT CHEQUE SCHEMES
Officers from Lothian and Borders Police Specialist Fraud Unit and the Serious and Organised Crime Unit have advised that they believe crime groups are targeting students in a fraudulent scheme involving students paying fake cheques into their bank accounts.
It appears that criminals offer students a share of the cash, a few hundred pounds at most, to carry out these fraudulent transactions.
Ds Aitken of the Specialist Fraud Unit, warns us that: “The students are told by the criminals that they will not get caught even although they know the activity is criminal. In fact they are involved with organised dangerous criminals who will pursue them and demand their ‘pound of flesh’ even if the transactions fail. Many of the students are foreign nationals, and if found guilty at court of fraud will have a criminal record, probably be expelled from the universities or colleges they are studying at and will in all likelihood be deported. It just not worth the chance.”
Police are now asking anyone who has been approached in relation to this scheme to contact police immediately and avoid becoming involved in this illegal activity.”