Deposit and Refund Scams

A deposit scam involves the use of altered or fraudulent teller receipts, deposit slips or internet payment confirmations to trick you into believing that a payment was made into your account and cleared, creating the impression that the payment cannot be returned or reversed. Typically, you will be asked to hand over goods before you realise you have been scammed.

Here's a common scenario:

Fraudsters respond to your advertisement to sell a laptop. They will tell you they have made a cash payment or EFT into your account, send you proof of payment and ask for the laptop. If you rely solely on the proof of payment and release the goods, the cheque is subsequently returned and you sit with a debit on your account – and no goods.

A refund scam also involves the use of altered or fraudulent receipts, deposit slips or internet payment confirmations to trick you into believing that a payment has been made into your account and cleared.

Here's a common scenario:

Fraudsters contact you, claiming they have made either an incorrect payment into your account or an accidental overpayment on an expected payment due to you. You are asked to refund the overpaid (or incorrectly paid) amount by EFT to a nominated account. To support their claim they provide you with a fraudulent internet payment confirmation or cash deposit slip to confirm the deposit of cleared funds. You may be convinced that the funds are cleared and then return the incorrect payment or overpayment. As you made the 'refund' by electronic transfer, the funds are immediately released and the fraudsters withdraw the money and disappear. A few days later the initial deposit that was made with a fraudulent cheque is returned and your account is debited.

Perpetrators have also started to impersonate representatives from well-known companies in an effort to make the scam appear genuine and to increase the pressure on you to act quickly.

• Wait for clearance. Never rely on proof of payment alone. Rather wait for the funds to be cleared before handing over goods. Cheques can take up to seven working days to be cleared, and remember that even bank-guaranteed cheques can be forged. You can also contact Nedbank for confirmation of clearance;

• Use bank-defined beneficiaries. There are hundreds of well-known companies on a prepopulated list you can find on your internet banking profile. If you use these details, you will know you are paying into the right account; and

• Fraudsters make small mistakes. Look out for little errors on your proof of payment, or possible alterations. These are often signs of fraud.