The London based ICC Commercial Crime Bureau (CCB) is warning banks and their customers to be wary of cheques from unfamiliar financial institutions. The CCB was moved to issue this warning after a host of worthless cheques were passed to its banking members in recent months.

The fraudulent cheques have been traced to a number of dummy corporations based in Oregon, USA. The US based scam operation is thought to be marketing the bogus cheques to unsuspecting victims overseas. While these worthless cheques appear to be legitimate at first glance, they are in fact linked to non-existent bank accounts.

"We advise anyone having dealings with a company purporting to be a financial institution that he or she does not recognize, or has never heard of, to check that institution's credentials very carefully before any committing funds," said Chris Spillett of the CCB.

The dummy corporations employed in this latest fraud are being masked as financial institutions, utilizing 'bank' 'bankcorp' and 'banking' in their title. Other terms such as 'investment trust', 'overseas holding', 'credit and investment', 'commerce' and 'investment' are added for credibility. In actual fact, these corporations are not licensed to conduct banking business in Oregon or elsewhere. "Our research has uncovered a large number of these entities which have links to one individual, who is currently under investigation," noted Spillett.

The CCB advises that one of the key warning signs that a 'bank' may not be what it seems is often the source of the offer. For instance, a legitimate trader would not expect to 'buy' a bank from a broker, and anyone who did would probably only do so if they were harbouring fraudulent intentions.

"We have drawn attention to the illegal use of the term 'bank' in the title of a company before. However, there appears to be a systematic and large-scale abuse of legal loopholes that enable individuals to undertake this activity and profit from it," added Spillett.

Researching cases of this nature and providing timely information to the banking community is part of the CCB's overall effort to reduce risk to its members. CCB members have received specific details and nam es of the dummy corporations as part of a confidential member bulletin. Those interested in finding out more about this fraud or others like it are encouraged to contact the CCB.

The ICC Commercial Crime Bureau (CCB) is to be renamed the Financial Investigation Bureau (FIB) from 1st January 2004. All the sevices and activities of the CCB will remain unchanged.

ICC Commercial Crime Bureau (CCB)