DOMA warns about ‘bad’ cheques

Do not accept  managers or certified cheques, by previously unknown customers outside of business hours or on weekends.  This warning was sounded yesterday via a release by the Downtown Owners and Merchants Association (DOMA). According to the release, the use of fraudulent cheques to illegally obtain merchandise from stores and local distributors has recently become prevalent.

DOMA said that the perpetrators have been making proposals to purchase substantial quantities of products, even negotiating for lower prices, and returning with cheques after closing time to pay for the merchandise, when it was too late to verify the validity of the cheques. DOMA said, members of the association have suffered losses exceeding $1.5 million in the past few weeks. The association is advising persons offering valuable items for sale via newspaper ads to be especially cautious, since unknown buyers could use the cover of such “one-time” transactions to offer cheques for settlement.