Bogus Money Orders PlagueCUs

LEXINGTON, Ky. - (06/06/05) -- Area credit unions and banks arebeing hit with a counterfeit money order scam, costing customerstens of thousands of dollars. University of Kentucky FCU said threemembers wracked up more than $20,000 in losses when they tried tocash the bogus certificates. As a result, credit unions and banksare ending the tradition of treating money orders as cash as moneytechnology has helped scammers create life-like money orders. TheFederal Reserve recently reminded financial institutions that theymay treat money orders as checks and impose a hold period of up to10 days. The Fed is also speeding up processing of money orders inorder to detect counterfeits faster.