Canadian fraudster takes banks for £300,000

It's been a quiet Christmas on the fraud front, although this hasn't stopped Canadian fraud police from issuing a warrant against Jefferey Storr, a 33-year-old Waterloo man, for a bold cash advance fraud against the banks

According to Canadian police, last January Storr obtained two Visa credit cards using a false first name and used them to obtain cash advances from local banks

Storr was only rumbled when a member of the bank's staff recognised him and realised there was a name discrepancy on the card

After his initial scam was rumbled, the 33-year-old then obtained a legitimate credit card from a US bank in his own name, and then proceeded to draw thousands of dollars from another bank in the area

What's interesting about the scam is that Storr seems to have persuaded bank staff that he had unlimited credit and that they should call a US number for authorisation

The authorisation number in the US was, of course, a co-conspirator but, because the initial cash withdrawals went through okay - even though they weren't really authorised (if you get my drift) - the bank staff thought everything was okay on later transactions

According to police, the scam worked for as long as it did because the card was from a US-based card issuer.

As a result, it took months before the over-limit cash advances bounced back.