MFSA warns of foreign scams hitting Malta

Consumers who have been approached by foreign contacts with an offer to work from home might be victims of scams which have been doing the rounds in many countries before hitting Malta in the past weeks.

These scams include offers for modelling work, photo sessions and advertising campaigns.

The Malta Financial Services Authority said in a statement it had been informed that a number of consumers approached their bank to cash travellers cheques (with an American Express logo) in euro, US dollar or sterling which they received in part payment for their work.

The cheques were mostly in denomination of €500 and, for the untrained eye, looked rather authentic - complete with apparent watermarks, holograms and security threads. However, they were fraudulent and useless.

The problem was that by the time consumers found out, they might have already sent money to the fraudsters.

The MFSA said that consumers who were targeted by these foreign fraudsters claimed to have been contacted to appear in a photo session and sent a number of travellers’ cheques often €5,000 or £5,000, which they were asked to deposit into their own account and then transfer the money to a third party via a money transfer facility, which is usually not through a bank).

They are told that the money would cover expenses for the photo session, including studio hire and to keep 10 to 20 percent as their own modelling fee.

Although the cheques would be worthless, the fraudsters hoped the model would have made the transfer but the time this was realised – this was usually a few days after the bank received notification from abroad during the clearing process.

The MFSA noted that many of the victims who sent money to the fraudsters failed to ask some very elementary questions about the whole setup before parting with their money.

These would include why were the foreign contacts sending money which they wanted back and why were they paying with travellers’ cheques.

The MFSA called on consumers to remain vigilant by:

* not responding to such e-mails;

* not giving out any personal details;

* not sending CVs, scans of photo ID, driving licences or similar documents;

* not paying any money.

More information can be obtained from the MFSA’s Consumer Complaints manager, tel:

8007 4924 or 2144 1155, e-mail: consumerinfo@mfsa.com.mt .