Missing Cheques

[Barmaid]

I am getting a bit worried that I have now had 3 cheques go missing. The first I was able to get the drawer to cancel it pdq because I was expecting it and quried it when it didnt turn up. The other two I have only just realised (thought I was a bit skint!) and they are several weeks old. I think someone is pilfering my mail.

Just to add insult to injury I had a letter delivered on Friday that looked like it might be a cheque (it wasnt) and had been opened!!!

Anyway, I discovered this too late today to phone the drawers to check to see if these cheques had been banked.

This got me to thinking. Obviously no one can bank these cheques as they are account payee and in my name. However, it is surprisinly easy to open an online account without providing any ID (you only need appear on the electoral register) - it would be the easiest thing in the world for someone to open an online account in the name of Miss B Maid at 20 Acacia Avenue (my address, for the avoidance of argument) and then operate it online. Pay the cheques in by posting them to the bank and then go online and transfer the money out.

So, how can I find out if anyone else has any accounts in my name?

[237SJ]

I would speak to the fraud department at your bank.

[chrissa1]

Are you sure it's not a case of..... "The cheques are in the post."

[Jackdaw33]

There is another method, mainly used by moneylenders. This is usually when the payee does not have a bank account. Thus if someone gets a cheque for a tax rebate but has no bank account, he takes it to a moneylender, signs the back, the moneylender gives him the cash, minus his fee, then pays it into his own account. There are arrangements to do this between banks and certain organisations. This could possibly have happened to you if the cheque has been intercepted.

[Barmaid]

Fair point 237SJ, but I am not sure how my bank can help given that the cheques have gone missing en route to me.

No, Chrissa. It is definitely not a case of that. The cheques have been sent by the clients to my office and the office have forwarded them on to me.

Jackdaw - didnt think of that......

[237SJ]

It might be a good place to start though. They might be able to tell you how the system works and how easy (or not) it would be for someone else to open an account in your name and what checks are done. My debit card was scammed recently and the fraud dept at Lloyds were very helpful and knowledgeable.

[Jackdaw33]

You will often see the sign, 'Third party Cheques cashed' outside such establishments.

[Hopkirk]

I didn't realise people still wrote cheques.

Perhaps it is worth asknig for payment by bank transfer in future.

[Jackdaw33]

You can check at any time with the drawers to see if the cheques have been presented. If they have, then it's a police matter.

[Jackdaw33]

I wrote a cheque last month, the first in two years.

[Barmaid]

This is the curse of my life Hopkirk. Unfortunately, I am dealing with a profession who have only just got used to the idea that Queen Victoria is dead and that quill pens and parchment are out of fashion.........

I know how easy it is to open an online account. I opened one last year when we travelled to Italy and I was concerned about having access to additional cash if stuff was stolen. No checks were performed. Only verification was by mobile. I opened the account online, transferred some money into it. Used the card in Italy, transferred the remainder back to my normal account.

[Barmaid]

Looks like I have a nervous night ahead waiting to find out whether they have been cashed.

[DTCwordfan]

Hundreds, Barmaid, my version of spamming......

just in my messing around.

I too would start with your bank fraud sqad and ask them to send a message with Ibuprofen to sister banks asking for such information...with your name, variants and address, they would/could pop something for the police. Have a chat with them too, so as to add gravitas your enquiry.....

[ladybirder]

Barmaid I live in a small block of flats and we have had a gang taking our mail from our postboxes this year and also about three or so years back. Although the boxes were locked they must have been using an implement to remove the post. Apart from ordering new credit cars in your name, they obtain loans on your behalf and take the money out the minute it lands into your account before you even realise a loan has been taken out. They have to come back several times to follow through their different scams. We have the police onto ours at the moment and I actually met one of the fraudsters in the entrance hall. You need to stop them getting your post for a start.

[Barmaid]

Well I have just done a credit check and apart from the *** insurance companies who have done about 56,000 searches there is nothing there I didnt know about. My current account is mentioned but none of my others, so who knows what accounts may exist in my name.

My bank cannot help - they suggest Action Fraud.

Ladybirder, I am normally here when the post comes and tend to try and grab it before one of the cats does something unmentionable to it. Tomorrow, however, I may be drop kicking the postman into the lake.......

[scorpiojo]

Are any of your neighbours not receiving their post?

[Jackdaw33]

Is Queen Victoria dead? Nobody told me!

[Peter Pedant]

I was cloned and joined CIFAS - which is peanuts and tax deductible I imagine

doesnt bring your cheques back tho

when I lost around three cheques that I had sent
I recollected the post box and contacted the manch post master

my brothers postie used to steal CDs and toss the wrappers away
and they just put up with it
( you obv can't )

[Peter Pedant]

cifas is here
https://www.cifas.org.uk/about_us
sozza

[DTCwordfan]

She bloody well be when Corbyn, Farage, Cameron and Johnson are finished with her, her house on the I of Wight designated as a tomb for our erstwhile Chancellor of the Czechs......

[Psybbo]

To avoid this, could you leave a paying in book in the office and get them to lodge the cheques in your account?