Several businesses have fallen victim to a fraudulent scheme in which payments for large amounts of goods were made via fake manager’s cheques, police stated last evening.

“The Guyana Police Force wishes to advise the general public, particularly members of the business community, that it has been observed that persons are making payments for goods purchased from businesses with fraudulent manager’s cheques”, the press release stated.

This has been happening for some time, the police reported, and there has been an increase in the number of such incidents recently. According to the police, there have been five reports within the past two weeks from businesses which were duped.

The modus operandi is: that the perpetrator would call the targeted business from a blocked telephone number and make an order for high priced goods indicating that payment will be made via manager’s cheque. Further, the release stated the perpetrator also enquires in whose name the cheque should be made out and the total cost of the order.
Based on investigations the police have observed that such calls are usually made on Fridays after 2 pm or on Saturdays when banks are closed and cannot forward the cheque to the business. The perpetrator hires a vehicle to collect the goods which are then transported to an isolated area where it is transferred to another vehicle with false number plates.

The fraud, police said, is usually discovered on the following Monday and in many cases while the vehicle that collected the goods is traced, the second vehicle is not.