29 September 2006
A press release from UK payment association Apacs, the British Bankers' Association (BBA) and the Building Societies Association (BSA) has advised consumers on new changes to the way people should write their cheques.
The three groups have produced a list of ten tips to follow when writing or receiving a cheque. These include: never accepting a cheque from someone who you don't trust, considering other methods of payment for high-value items and paying cheques into your account as soon as possible.
When writing a cheque consumers should always draw a line through unused spaces so unauthorised people cannot add extra numbers or names, never pre-sign blank cheques and always be sure to date cheques.
Paul Smee, Apacs chief executive, said: "Although most of us are handling cheques less and less – on average, we only pay in one cheque every two months – this small change to the way we write them will have a big impact on fraudsters.
"Thankfully most customers do this already but we want to reach those others who've not changes how they write cheques to reduce the opportunities for criminals to commit fraud, as well as minimising the chances of anyone falling victim to this type of scam."
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