Couriers nabbed for check fraud

Four couriers have been arrested for using counterfeit checks to purchase 310,000 yuan ($51,057) worth of computers, mobile phones and watches from the online retailer they worked for, police said Tuesday.

One of the suspects, surnamed Huang, who worked at a well-known online retailer's logistics center in Qingpu district, came up with the idea to defraud his employer after a company accountant told him about a customer who paid for a delivery with a bad check, according to a press release from the Qingpu District Public Security Bureau. The press release did not identify Huang's employer.

Although the customer later repaid the company in cash, Huang believed he had discovered a flaw in his company's payment system that he could exploit.

He figured that it was nearly impossible for couriers to tell the difference between a genuine and a fake check.

Huang told a colleague surnamed Wang about the flaw and they convinced two other couriers, surnamed Zou and Song, to join them in a scheme to defraud their employer.

Wang bought the phony checks, and Song bought the items online. Song placed the six orders from two Internet bars that he entered using a State identification card that Huang had found on the ground.

Zou spent 200 yuan to hire a man to receive the products on their behalf at an electronics store. The hired man paid the courier with nine fake checks on November 23. The online retailer discovered the counterfeit checks and reported the case to police on November 27.

The company didn't discover that the checks were phony until one of its accountants went to the bank to deposit them, said a press officer surnamed Peng from the Qingpu District Public Security Bureau.

The four couriers intended to take advantage of the time that the online retailer needed to confirm the checks' authenticity to sell the items to a businessman.

Despite the group's efforts to hide their tracks, police traced the account information used to order the products back to Wang, Peng told the Global Times.

Police took all four men into custody over the next two days. Officers found the purchased products stashed in Huang's apartment in Baihe town.