The Min­istry of So­cial De­vel­op­ment and Fam­i­ly Ser­vices (MS­DFS) has is­sued a warn­ing and pub­lic dis­claimer con­cern­ing coun­ter­feit cheques which are be­ing cashed at gro­ceries and su­per­mar­kets.

In the bul­letin is­sued to­day, the Min­istry warns gro­cery own­ers, shop­keep­ers, and su­per­mar­ket man­agers, cashiers and staff of those busi­ness­es to be on the look­out for cheques us­ing cer­tain names and ID num­bers.

“The names and ID num­bers are be­ing used by fraud­sters to present coun­ter­feit cheques and false iden­ti­fi­ca­tion for mon­e­tary gain,” the Min­istry warned in its state­ment.

The fol­low­ing names and ID num­bers are be­ing used by the fraud­sters…

● An­tho­ny Ali: 19551010012

● Earnest Sa­landy: 19470617026

● Er­ic James: 19560808029

● John Charles: 19550719022

● Steve Thomp­son: 19530403075

● Paul For­tune: 19551919036

The Min­istry is urg­ing all es­tab­lish­ments to “ex­er­cise ex­treme vig­i­lance” when ex­am­in­ing cheques and ID cards.

“Pay par­tic­u­lar at­ten­tion to the vi­su­al age of the in­di­vid­ual pre­sent­ing the cheque and en­sure it aligns with the in­for­ma­tion on the ID card,” the Min­istry ad­vis­es. “Fraud­sters of­ten re­ly on dis­crep­an­cies in ap­pear­ance to car­ry out these schemes.”

Busi­ness­es that sus­pect fraud­u­lent ac­tiv­i­ty are al­so be­ing en­cour­aged to make a re­port im­me­di­ate­ly to the near­est po­lice sta­tion, as well as to con­tact the Min­istry's In­ves­ti­ga­tion and Com­pli­ance Unit at 623-2862 (Ext. 1800), or send an email to in­fo@so­cial.gov.tt