4 men arrested in Forsyth County check-forgery scheme

A quick suspicious-activity call at a Citizens Bank branch off Ga. 400 in Cumming helped stop what Forsyth County deputies say was a check-forgery scheme that had already crossed into another county. Four men were arrested around 3 p.m. Tuesday after bank staff flagged the activity in progress, and investigators later seized the suspects’ rental car.

The case mattered well beyond one bank lobby because the group had reportedly been working similar fraudulent activity in Cherokee County the day before, where one arrest had already been made. WGTJ Radio reported that the men had successfully passed some worthless checks worth about $4,000 on some occasions before the Forsyth County attempt shut the operation down. That makes the episode a reminder that forged-check schemes often move quickly, rely on ordinary-looking paperwork, and depend on someone at a bank or business catching the pattern early.

Georgia law treats that kind of conduct seriously. Under the state’s forgery statute, third-degree forgery can involve a check of $1,500 or more that is knowingly made, altered, possessed, uttered or delivered with intent to defraud. It is classified as a felony in most cases, and a conviction can bring one to five years in prison.

The setting also explains why the incident resonated locally. The bank branch is at 4255 GA Highway 400 in Cumming, in a corridor where traffic, offices and retail businesses create a steady flow of transactions. Citizens Bank of Georgia says it has four locations in Cumming, Alpharetta and Canton, giving the institution a broad local footprint and making quick reporting and fast response especially important when something looks wrong.

Forsyth County has grown sharply, from 251,283 residents in the 2020 Census to an estimated 280,096 in 2024, and that growth has brought more financial activity into the county’s busiest commercial stretches. The Forsyth County Sheriff’s Office says its criminal investigations unit handles white-collar crimes, including forgery of checks and other documents, which puts this case squarely in the kind of day-to-day financial crime local investigators are expected to confront. For residents, small businesses and bank workers, the lesson is direct: suspicious behavior at a counter, an office or a branch can be the difference between a stopped fraud and a bigger loss.