Fake cheque reports fell by two thirds — but the mechanism did not go away

Why this case matters

Two datasets show the same decline, and it is a real one. Fewer people are being caught by cheque overpayment scams than three years ago — the FTC’s report count fell by roughly two thirds in two years.

The reason is probably mundane: fewer people receive cheques at all, fewer banks make funds available quickly on a deposited cheque, and mobile deposit apps have become better at flagging bad instruments. The scam depended on a gap between a cheque appearing to clear and actually clearing, and that gap has narrowed.

But the losses did not follow

FBI overpayment losses were higher in 2025 than in 2024, on a lower complaint count. Loss per complaint rose from about $6,700 to about $10,400.

That is the signature seen repeatedly on this site: a scheme reaching fewer people while taking more from each of them. The cheque was only ever the instrument. The mechanism — pay you too much, then ask for the difference back — works just as well with a spoofed payment app notification, a fraudulent bank transfer that will later be reversed, or an “accidental” refund staged on a screen the operator controls.

Where it went instead

The same period saw foreign money and inheritance scam reports rise from 2,890 to 5,061, and job and task scams grow sharply in several countries. Both of those carry the overpayment structure inside them: an employer who overpays for equipment, a buyer whose payment was too large, a refund department that made an error.

What it tells you about the scheme

Do not read this as a scam being defeated. Read it as an instrument being retired while the idea behind it moves. The durable rule is not about cheques at all: anyone who pays you too much and asks you to return the difference is running a scam, whatever the payment method. A genuine overpayment is corrected by the sender reversing it, which requires nothing from you.