Hyderabad: The city police have issued a warning to the public after several incidents of cheque thefts. They are cautioning people against depositing their cheques carelessly in the drop boxes at ATM kiosks in the city.
Complaints were filed with the police stating that cheques dropped in the drop boxes were going missing. After investigations, it was discovered that some individuals were specifically targeting drop boxes at ATM kiosks without security guards and stealing the cheques.
According to a police official, the thieves are tampering with the stolen cheques before depositing them in banks. The amount is then transferred to a third-party account in another city. Every month, the city reports three or four cases of such incidents.
To prevent further occurrences, the police have advised people to only deposit their cheques in well-guarded drop boxes. They have also recommended that account holders write their cheques in a way that makes it difficult for anyone to manipulate the writing.
Further investigations revealed that the fraudsters would steal the cheques from the drop boxes and note down the beneficiary’s details. They would then open bank accounts in a distant location. The account holders would only find out about the fraudulent activity once they received an SMS notification of the credited amount. However, by then, it is usually too late as the thieves withdraw the money as soon as the cheque is cleared.
The thieves have a modus operandi where they submit fake documents at a bank to open an account where they can deposit the stolen cheque and have it cleared.
The police have urged banks to install tamper-proof drop boxes at ATMs and have advised people not to leave any blank spaces on their cheques.
