A Survey of Reasons for the Under Reporting of Cheque Fraud: Examples from Australia

Fraud is generally defined as the practice of obtaining credit and property from another by means of deception. When the object of deception used is a valueless cheque, then the conduct is called ‘cheque fraud.’ Cheque fraud is a crime; but unlike other types of crime, such as crimes involving force, cheque fraud is under reported to the police. The reasons for the under reporting are diverse and mean that only about 15% of all offences come to the attention of the police. An Australian study conducted to survey reasons for this under reporting revealed that a major factor affecting victims' reactions to cheque fraud was their ignorance of police functions and an uncertainty whether the passing of valueless cheques could constitute a crime. The results of this study are reported herein.