Military dependants and civilians are becoming unwitting accomplices in a scheme to cash stolen or forged checks and money orders, Killeen police said Wednesday.

Detectives said residents have been solicited by individuals who claim to be representatives of valid businesses looking for people willing to use their personal computers, e-mail accounts and home addresses to receive and cash checks and money orders.

What the residents don’t realize, police said, is that the checks and money orders are either stolen or forged.

The individuals behind the scam are evidently monitoring web sites where resumes are posted and contacting residents who are actually seeking employment, police said.

The residents who take the job are required to arrange wire transfers of cashed checks or money orders and on occasion to forward products to addresses in the U.S. and overseas.

In return they’re either allowed to keep 10 percent of the amount of the instrument cashed or they are later paid by mail, police said.

The scam goes unnoticed until someone who sent a check or money order to the crooks complains, police said.

“These ‘unknowing persons’ who cash the documents are always left to talk with police, and the ‘employers’ are usually never found,” police said.

The homes and computers of those unwittingly caught up in the scam are subject to search, police said, and computers may be confiscated.

One investigation centered around an eBay bidder who was duped into sending a $6,300 check to the wife of a Fort Hood soldier, who was instructed to cash the check and transfer the proceeds by wire.

When the bidder realized he had been tricked, he filed a police report and a search warrant was issued for the local woman’s home and computer.

Her employer was never caught, police said.

Residents who are contacted by e-mail or phone about such a scheme should call the Killeen police fraud investigators at (254) 501-8831, police said.