Fraudsters use overpayments to steal money

Date: 7th September 2009

Hoteliers and other small retailers are facing an overpayments-based financial scam, it has been suggested.

Financial investigator Tony Hetherington, writing in the Daily Mail, said that fraudsters are targeting anyone with high-priced goods to sell.

The scams commonly work through the con artist deliberately overpaying for a service, such as spending too much on a hotel room.

They then ask the hotel owner to refund them the remainder via money transfer, which is banked at their end.

However, once the fraudulent nature of the original transaction comes to light, the bank can claim back the entire sum, leaving the seller out of pocket.

Mr Hetherington issued the warning in response to a query from a hotel owner, who had received multiple emails of this kind and had refused to make the booking in each case.

"They are all 'overpayment' frauds ... as well as targeting hotels and restaurants, the tricksters also cheat people advertising high-priced items for sale, such as cars, boats, horses and so on," he commented.

CIFAS, the UK's fraud prevention service, found that overall fraud levels rose in the UK by 16 per cent over 2008.