Large Sums of Money Stolen from American Bank Accounts Held By Roshei Kollelim

A number of Roshei Kollelim and non profit organizations lost large sums of money last week when they found their U.S. held dollar accounts were drained of funds by counterfeit checks, in what turns out to be a well-planned scam.

A Rosh Kollel shares his story with Bchadrey Charedim: " Last Sunday I tried to do transfer a large sum of money to my Israeli account in order to pay my avreichim before Yom tov, but I discovered that my account had been drained of funds. When I checked the last transactions in that account I found out that someone had written a check for tens of thousands of dollars to my account.

I immediately called my bank and froze all transactions. Later on I discovered that many others have also lost large sums of money in this same scam. All of us regularly change our dollar checks into Shekel at the same currency exchange in Yerushalyaim. The currency exchange then channels our checks through one specific company. Somewhere along the line someon made use of our personal information, produced counterfeit checks and drained our dollar accounts.

Bchadrey Charedim has learned that a currency exchange in Modiin Illit has passed some of his clients along to the aforementioned currency exchange in Yerushalyaim, inadvertently damaging some of his own clients who were also subjected to the scam.
Most of the American banks are insured and will be refunding the stolen funds shortly since they were withdrawn using forged checks.

A head of one of the non profits told Bchadrey Chredim, " The tzibbur has to be careful not to change checks by money changers until this story is settled. The strange thing is that the company that process these checks isn't willing at this time to reveal any details. When the time comes they will talk. "

Bchadrey Charedim will continue into follow this story. Where you stung by this scam? If so please contact Bchadrey Charedim.

'בחדרי' גם ברשתות החברתיות - הצטרפו!