East Aurora Police warns public about recruitment scheme to cash fraudulent checks

East Aurora, N.Y. (WBEN) - After a 19-year-old Cheektowaga female was arrested in East Aurora for attempting to cash a fraudulent check, police are warning the public about a fraud recruitment scheme.

Police Chief Patrick Welch say on Oct. 10, employees at M&T Bank reported the suspect had attempted to cash a $7,400 check, which they knew was fraudulent. After detectives questioned her, they discovered she was recruited by a social media advertisement.

"Our understanding is that there's folks that steal mail from either residential or post office mailboxes and get their hands on checks and then fraudulently print checks with with the account numbers," Welch stated in an interview with WBEN. "They tell the person, 'Okay, we're going to write the check out to you. You're going to cash a check and then you're going to keep $1,000 and then you're going to give me the rest of the money.'"

Welch says the recruitment scheme is most likely a nationwide issue and everyone should be cautious when responding to advertisements that promise "easy money."

"If it sounds too good to be true, it probably isn't true, and alert us. Let us know who's posting the ad, screenshot it with your phone, send us the picture, come in and see an officer. Any of those reporting mechanisms would work," Welch stated. "We can even team up with the postal inspectors and folks in the federal government as well."

The female suspect was charged with Attempted Grand Larceny in the Third Degree and Possession of a Forged Instrument in the Second Degree, both are felonies.