Fraudsters target magicians

In the past hoteliers, job seekers and people selling cars on the Internet have been targeted by the scams that are commonly known as 'cash-back frauds'.

Now East Sussex County Council's Trading Standards Service has found out that a similar fraud has been used to attempt to trick magicians into parting with their cash.

Magicians from around the country have reported receiving bogus bookings for their acts, with the person attempting the fraud using a false East Sussex address.

The fraud involved making the initial booking by email, then sending cheques to the magicians for a far larger sum than required. The scammer would ask for any excess to be returned to a third party via a money transfer service such as Western Union. Fortunately all of the magicians reporting the scam didn't fall for the illusion and didn't lose any money.

Councillor Bob Tidy, Lead Cabinet Member for Community Services, said: "We know that many consumers have been targeted by different variations of this scam but the scammers use the same trick. It involves forged cheques for a far greater amount than required for goods or services and a money transfer.

"A victim falling for the trick banks the cheque and then sends the excess back via money transfer. Everything appears to be fine until the bank or building society eventually identifies the cheque as bogus and claims that money back. But claiming the money back is not an option with money transfer and the person loses the excess amount they have sent.

"People should be aware that forged cheques when banked will take some time to come to light. Don't accept a cheque greater in value than required and never use a money transfer service such as Western Union to mail funds to strangers."

For more information about the work of Trading Standards visit the County Council's website eastsussex.gov.uk/community/tradingstandards

Following publication of this article earlier today (Wednesday) we have received the following letter from Western Union:

Reading your article "Fraudsters Target Magicians" (April 10), we note that the cases of fraud you mention involve money transfer services such as Western Union.

At Western Union we take this problem very seriously and have a number of policies and procedures in place to detect and prevent criminal activity. However, we would like to emphasise that the Western Union money transfer system was designed to send money to people you know and trust. It was never designed to be used to transfer money to strangers or persons you cannot identify.

Western Union is committed to educating consumers about the issue of consumer fraud. Unfortunately, this is an issue that not only concerns money transfer providers, but the entire financial services industry, as well as customers all over the world.

Rajiv Garodia, Country Director, UK, Ireland and Nordics at Western Union