NATCHEZ — A counterfeit check scam targeting real estate agents and attorneys has surfaced in Natchez.

The scam — reported around the country — occurs when an overseas buyer begins inquiring about purchasing property in the local community.

Local attorney Lisa Jordan Dale said red flags went up for her when a local Realtor contacted her to handle the sale of a local property to someone in China.

Overseas and out-of-town transactions handled via phone and Internet are not so rare that those details themselves are cause for concern, Dale said.

But she got worried when a check for $350,000 was mailed from a Canadian bank with a Canadian postmark.

Dale asked her local bank to look into the validity of the check, and they discovered that it fit the bill of the new scam.

In fact, the Canadian Bank named on the check confirmed the check was the 116th one they had encountered that week.

In the scam, the purported buyer asks the Realtor to provide a local attorney to handle the closing. Upon negotiating the price, the attorneys receive the checks for large sums. They are asked to deposit the check, but before it clears, the buyer provides a reason for a portion of the funds to be wired to his account.

Often, as was the case in with check Dale received, the checks come from legitimate businesses’ accounts that have been fraudulently obtained.

Dale said she was happy that training provided by her insurance company helped her question the case before any harm was done locally.