Protect yourself against cheque fraud by taking care when writing out your cheques.
This is the advice from Charl Cilliers, the Banking Ombudsman. His office receives many complaints from bank customers about cheque fraud.
"Forgeries on cheques present a big problem and are rife," Cilliers says.
"Not only are signatures forged, but the other details on cheques are frequently altered.
"Some of these alterations are done so skilfully that even careful bank officials are taken in," he says.
"Other alterations or forgeries, however, are so crude that anyone who looked at the cheque would see something was amiss."
But bank officials do not always look at cheques, especially cheques for less than R5 000.
"Fraudsters know this and take advantage of this bank policy," the ombudsman says.
He notes that in these cases banks which collect or pay out on fraudulent cheques, may be liable for damages.
"It would be more difficult to alter cheques if customers used care when writing out their cheques," Cilliers says.
You should write the figures and the words in such a way that they are difficult if not impossible to alter, he says.
And take great care writing out the name of the person or company you are paying.