UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH AFRICA (UNISA)
College of Law
⋄
Credit Card Fraud and Cheque Fraud:
Types, Schemes, and Their Role
in Identity Theft
Semester 1 Assignment 02 – 2026
⋄
Module Code: FOR3703
Module Name: Forensic Investigation
Student Name: [Insert Student Name]
Student Number: [Insert Student Number]
Assignment No.: 02
Unique Number: 279511
Semester: Semester 1, 2026
Due Date: [Insert Due Date]
,UNISA | FOR3703 Credit Card Fraud and Cheque Fraud
Contents
1 Introduction 3
2 Definitions of Key Terms 4
2.1 Credit Card Fraud . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
2.2 Identity Theft . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
2.3 Cheque Fraud . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
2.4 Phishing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
2.5 Card-Not-Present (CNP) Fraud . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
3 Types of Credit Card Fraud Used to Commit Identity Theft 6
3.1 Card-Not-Present (CNP) Fraud . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
3.2 Credit Card Skimming and Card Cloning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
3.3 Phishing, Smishing, and Vishing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
3.4 Account Takeover Fraud . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
3.5 New Account Fraud (Application Fraud) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
3.6 Mail Theft and Interception . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
3.7 Synthetic Identity Fraud . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
3.8 Data Breach and Dark Web Exploitation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
4 Cheque Fraud Schemes 11
4.1 Cheque Forgery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
4.2 Counterfeit Cheques . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
4.3 Chemical Alteration (Cheque Washing) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
4.4 Cheque Kiting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
4.5 Paper Hanging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
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, UNISA | FOR3703 Credit Card Fraud and Cheque Fraud
4.6 Identity-Based Cheque Fraud . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
4.7 Duplicate Presentment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
5 Summary and Conclusion 15
List of References 16
Page 2 of 17
College of Law
⋄
Credit Card Fraud and Cheque Fraud:
Types, Schemes, and Their Role
in Identity Theft
Semester 1 Assignment 02 – 2026
⋄
Module Code: FOR3703
Module Name: Forensic Investigation
Student Name: [Insert Student Name]
Student Number: [Insert Student Number]
Assignment No.: 02
Unique Number: 279511
Semester: Semester 1, 2026
Due Date: [Insert Due Date]
,UNISA | FOR3703 Credit Card Fraud and Cheque Fraud
Contents
1 Introduction 3
2 Definitions of Key Terms 4
2.1 Credit Card Fraud . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
2.2 Identity Theft . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
2.3 Cheque Fraud . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
2.4 Phishing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
2.5 Card-Not-Present (CNP) Fraud . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
3 Types of Credit Card Fraud Used to Commit Identity Theft 6
3.1 Card-Not-Present (CNP) Fraud . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
3.2 Credit Card Skimming and Card Cloning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
3.3 Phishing, Smishing, and Vishing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
3.4 Account Takeover Fraud . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
3.5 New Account Fraud (Application Fraud) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
3.6 Mail Theft and Interception . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
3.7 Synthetic Identity Fraud . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
3.8 Data Breach and Dark Web Exploitation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
4 Cheque Fraud Schemes 11
4.1 Cheque Forgery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
4.2 Counterfeit Cheques . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
4.3 Chemical Alteration (Cheque Washing) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
4.4 Cheque Kiting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
4.5 Paper Hanging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Page 1 of 17
, UNISA | FOR3703 Credit Card Fraud and Cheque Fraud
4.6 Identity-Based Cheque Fraud . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
4.7 Duplicate Presentment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
5 Summary and Conclusion 15
List of References 16
Page 2 of 17
