Copyright 2002, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

After reading the articles about the KWS fraud case on your website, I felt compelled to share an experience I had. As a majority partner in a digital imaging company I was shocked to find that we had been party to a similar fraud. Turned out that somehow our corporate checking account number had been stolen, the criminals had been making checks that appeared to look like ours and cashing them all over town, as it turned out the checks were called “Versa Checks.”

These checks can be purchased at any office store and simply printed on any ink jet or laser printer. The sad thing is that checks have cost business in the Columbus, Ohio area thousands of dollars. The criminals were targeting large corporations, and even McDonalds wasn’t safe, the total amount that we lost was over $20,000; luckily the criminals were caught, but that will not replace the money we lost.

So my advice to any business that plans to accept these checks is to get as much identification from that party that you can and protect yourself, it’s only money, but it is your money.

Christopher J. Stets
Vice President
Digital Domaine Studios Inc.
Creative Development Manager
Sarcom

Columbus, Ohio




I work at a company that sells high performance automotive parts over the internet and through an 800 number. It is similar to the motorcycle market since we are make-specific (Volvo only). It seems somewhat naive in today’s market to get burned for that kind of cash.

We will not ship COD to a first-time customer. Period. Overnight delivery to someone I have not done business with previously is another red flag that makes me sit up and dynamite the brakes.

The last thing to watch for is how appropriate the purchases are. Does a club racer with no history really need three sets of new wheels delivered overnight? Did he order universal parts that fit any machine in large quantity?

Remember that the delivery driver is required to deliver all those boxes by 10:30 and he is not really focused on how fishy the location is. Credit cards are safer since the verification usually includes name and address. If you ship somewhere that is not verified, and any other red flags are up, it’s probably fraud.

Ken Pruett
Portland, Oregon