Jun.17, 2010, 12:00AM, Source: The Daily Telegraph

POLICE have warned against a new mystery shopper scam duping people into laundering fake travellers' cheques.

The scam advertises in local newspapers for people interested in becoming "secret shoppers".

When they respond they are sent between €2000 and €5000 ($2800-$7100) worth of fake American Express travellers' cheques in the mail.

The cheques, described as sophisticated forgeries, are from representatives claiming to be contracted to evaluate the services of Western Union.

The unsuspecting mule is instructed to cash the cheques at their local bank or post office, keep $350 as their commission and wire the remaining funds via a Western Union money transfer to a front account in London.

Typically these are made via Australia Post outlets, which act as agents for Western Union.

As part of their secret shopper "assignment" people are asked to provide the name and address of the Western Union outlet they attended, rate the customer service, the time it took and any security systems in place.

The scam has emerged across greater Sydney and the Central Coast but its origins are unknown.

Police believe it may be from Eastern Europe, via London, or the west coast of Africa.

Gosford police have seized more than $25,000 worth of fake travellers' cheques in the past few weeks.

Detective Senior Sergeant Paul Kelly said the scam had been referred to Interpol and the NSW Police fraud squad.

He said the scam was conducted largely by email, hosted on an array of proxy servers and other technologies used to cover the perpetrator's digital tracks.

However, given that mules were required to provide their passports, driver's licence and other forms of identification to cash the forged travellers' cheques, he said they ran "significant risks".

While charges had not yet been laid, anyone deliberately or unwittingly cashing forged cheques could face money laundering offences or be prosecuted for dealing in the proceeds of crime, he said.

"While each matter is investigated separately based on the level of criminality involved, an important part of our investigation is public awareness," he said.

"They're just being the mule but what the banks have to be careful of is, how many people are in on it? They might say, 'I've just been tricked into cashing the cheques' but can they prove that?"

A spokesman said Australia Post was aware of some cases where the scam had been attempted but those attempts had been thwarted.