DALTON – When Nathan Billups strolled into the Regions Bank in downtown Dalton, Ga., he looked like an average customer, police said.
But when he tried to cash a large check from a business in Douglasville, bank tellers became suspicious and called police, said Dalton Police Chief Jason Parker. They refused to cash the check and he walked out.
Billups, a homeless man from Atlanta, was stopped by a Dalton officer on Tuesday, but police later realized he wasn’t the source of the check, Parker said. He has been arrested and charged with first-degree forgery and giving a false name, police said.
An Atlanta-based operation that uses homeless people to pose as blue-collar workers who try to cash fake checks for about $3,000 to $4,000 each at local banks continues to frustrate Tennessee and Georgia police.
“Who knows how large this operation is?” Parker said. “The risk is extremely low and the return is extremely high if they are successful.”