Beware of Magic Pens: Use your own pen to write cheques

Yesterday, a new scam came to light where a collection agent from Vodafone in Delhi was using magic pen to erase and alter the contents of the cheques. The magic pen writes as a common pen but the writing can be erased by heating the cheques.

The modus operandi was simple. The agent persuaded the customers to use his pen to write cheque in favor of the mobile operator. Later he would heat the cheque with a lighter and erase the content. Then he would write the cheque in “self” and withdraw the cash from banks.

The scam came to light when an Assistant Manager at HDFC Bank became suspicious of a cheque and called the police. The police believes, he might have duped several people using this method.

What should you do?

I was not aware of any such magic pens available in the market so easily and would have never suspected any fraud of this sort. But now that I know of this, I would advise everyone to use their own pens to write cheques or fill up various forms. You never know whats cooking up next!