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Crime Awareness |
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Tips and guidelines to safeguard you and prevent fraud
A cheque is a written instruction to your bank to pay money out of your account.
- Leave no space in front of the name of the payee and the amount in figures. Unused spaces must be cancelled by drawing lines through them.
- Payee details should appear in full, eg- South African Revenue Services, instead of SARS.
- Write the amount in figures as closely as possible to the 'R' (rand) sign.
Other guidelines:
- Keep your chequebook in a safe place.
- Advise your bank as soon as you suspect fraud on your account or have lost your chequebook.
- If you sign a blank cheque ahead of time, fraudsters can simply complete the details to suit themselves.
- Keep returned cheques in a safe place, preferably under lock and key.
- Furthermore, it is best to punch returned cheques through the magnetic strip to prevent them from being re-used.
- Reconcile bank statements regularly.
- Long-outstanding cheques and used cheques must be examined for unauthorised or unusual endorsements.
- Report lost, stolen or missing cheques immediately.
When accepting a cheque as a means of payment ensure that:
- there is no variation in the hand-writing.
- the same pen is used to complete the cheque.
- there are no visible alterations.
- you are alert to co-incidences, eg- a cheque bearing the words 'SAR Steyn' could be a cleverly amended SARS cheque.
Crossed cheques:
- Always mark crossed cheques "not transferable".
- Crossing cheques help to prevent fraud, since it is possible to trace the person to whom the cheque was paid.
- If a cheque is not crossed, the person can receive payment in cash over the counter.
- A cheque crossed "not transferable" must be paid into a bank account and to a specific person or organisation.
- Avoid issuing cash cheques.
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Forex
