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Show RAPID ALERT. Chamber of Commerce President Paul Whetman explains how the new alert system to protect retailers from bad checks, counterfeit money and other scams works. Rapid Alert C of C Fights Crime Rapid Alert is the name of a calling system organized by the Cedar City Chamber of Commerce in cooperation with local law enforcement agencies to help the city's retail dealers protect themselves from counterfeit money, bad checks and con artists. "The system has a positive purpose. pur-pose. The less loss any business has, the better the savings will be. Some people can't make this correlation. For instance, stores which suffer from shoplifiting have to charge more to paying customers to make up their loss," explained the chamber's Executive Secretary Garth Jones. The system works with stores grouped in neigborhoods calling each other in a chain system by telephone and according to Jones most of the city's retailers will be alerted within several hours. Chamber officers were careful to emphasize that an alert will not go into effect until police have been contacted and initiated the alert. Chamber Board President Paul Whitman said that in a recent semina attended by some 160 local merchants and clerks that Iron County Attorney James Shumate advised that merchants notify his" office if they receive any bad checks and that he will keep an updated list of who is passing bad checks. "A check is only a piece of paper and as such, is no better than the person who writes it. Accordingly, anyone who takes a check and delivers cash or property is taking a risk, the taking of that risk can only be slightly minimized by law enforcement en-forcement agencies. This is because the property and cash is out of the hands of the merchants when the purchaser walks out the door. An alert will help other merchants, but the first person taking a bad check will be hurt to some extent," states Shumate in a list of recommentations to local businesses. Florence Woodard, manager of Yellow Front, stated that check guarantee cards are becoming more necessary in Cedar City as the town grows. "I would encourage merchants to get with their bankers and set up a check guarantee system. A driver's license only says that a person is qualified to drive a vechicle while a check quarantee card says that a person is in good financial condition," explained Whetman. The new system replaces a less effective check control system used by local businesses. Jones explained that the problem of bad checks is currently costing businesses nationwide $40 billion a year. |