Whereas
cash is virtually untraceable, cheques
provide
investigating authorities with perhaps
the
most complete set of opportunities for
finding
out who paid what to whom, when - and by
asking
around, perhaps also why.
Both
the face and the back of any cleared cheque
is
stored for posterity on microfilm, giving away
the
following information to those who may care
to
look: name and location of issuing bank,
account
number on which cheque was drawn, issuing
date,
amount, to whom the cheque was made out to,
and
a nice copy of the signature of the account
owner.
The
back of the cheque will likewise show the
signature
of whoever cashed or deposited the
cheque
plus, if applicable, the signature of the
original
recipient who later endorsed it and,
lastly
either number of the ID (passport, driving
license)
used to cash the cheque or the number of
the
account to which the cheque was deposited.
Now
isn't that nice - if you write a cheque on an
account
later established to be owned by you, not
only
may any remaining funds in the account be
seized,
liened or attached but microfilm copies
of
all cheques ever drawn on the account may be
easily
procured and investigated.
That
is why, if you do not want anyone to know
where
you live, you should never use a cheque to
pay
your rent - not even once. If the account is
ever
discovered to be connected to you then the
police,
tax authorities or private investigator
will
have a direct lead to your landlord and,
through him, to your physical whereabouts.
Reversely, anyone receiving a cheque from you may
opt
to make a photocopy of it before depositing
it and will in this fashion retain information
about your bank account. If
you use a cheque to
make the first few instalments on, say, rent or a
loan that you later fail to keep up, the clever
creditor or landlord will be in a position to
furnish a court with all the information that is
necessary to freeze ot seize
your account and
everything in it. If you pay your maildrop by
cheque, you have totally blown your cover.
To further elaborate on the problems this may
cause you, suppose
you are in another country and
pay something by a cheque drawn on an account
which, unbeknown to you, has been frozen in your
absence. As a foreigner, you will most likely
have to show your passport for the cheque to be
accepted
and your passport number will be noted
on the back. When the cheque later turns out to
be bad, the person on the receiving end of the
bad cheque will be in a position to give local
authorities your passport number - which may
result
in your being apprehended at the airport
the next time you either enter or leave the
country (the latter provided that computer checks
are made of passport numbers on departing that
country).
Now, you may not wish to live without cheques
although it is perfectly possible and much safer.
But take all relevant precautions. You should
fully realise that whenever you write a cheque,
you
implicitly give anyone in a position to
investigate either your own account or that
belonging to the recipient of the cheque, a
veritable carte blanche to persue the connection
between you and him very thoroughly. The worst
part of
it is that it may not even be you
yourself who needs to make a mistake - someone
else
may make the mistake for you, opening a
Pandora's
box of grief for you. Let us say that
you
paid a solicitor for services rendered - by
cheque.
Unfortunately, the solicitor turns out to
be
crooked and in cahoots with parts of the
underworld.
Investigators poring over his
financial
records and bank accounts notice that
you
made a payment to their suspect. This, in
turn,
may lead to your phone being tapped and
your
mail intercepted and examined to see if you
too
are connected to the underworld. Have you
anything
to hide?
On
the other hand, you may still use cheques to
move
money from A to B without a record of use to
anyone
being created by this. One example is that
you
move money into a secret, offshore bank
account
a lot easier than going there in person
by
sending cheques to your bank - as long as you
use
Cashiers Cheques that you have obtained
without
disclosing your identity or presenting
any
ID whatsoever.
Travelers
cheques would also be useful if you
were
eventually paying them into an offshore
account
of your own: check out whether you have
to
sign them in front of the cashier at the point
of
purchase. Failing that, the good old fashioned
postal
order; find out the latest maximum value
of
the highest order, bought without ID and
acceptable
paid into your offshore bank account.
Check
it out.
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