There have been two local incidents of fraud reported in the last seven days. One involves part of a $50,000 Flood Grant and the other involves voting in this year's Federal Election.

As regular Lismore App readers would know, Andrea and Emily Bonotto will be opening a new coffee and takeaway shop called the Village People at The Village Shopping Centre Goonellabah while they decide where Dirty's will reopen in the CBD.

Andrea recently tried to apply for the $50,000 Small Business Flood Grant. Under the terms of reference, you can claim the first $15,000 without receipts so an easier process allowing business owners to get some cash flow so they can start to rebuild their shop/store.

Initially, the other $35,000 needed receipts to claim the money back which you could do multiple times until you reach the $50,000 limit. Recently, the State Government relaxed the terms of reference so business owners could claim $25,000 with no receipts, then apply for the other $25,000 with receipts.

(From the Service NSW website under Small Business Grants)

Andrea decided to claim his Small Business Flood Grant later than some due the fact he and Emily were working on the Village People fit-out. He went online first to begin the claim but discovered that the first $15,000 had already been claimed.

Andrea called Service NSW to find out what was going on and after the required security check was told that it looks like you have already claimed the $15,000. It was transferred to someone called Taylor who somehow had broken through the security checks to claim the money.

"They have put a Case Manager onto it," said Andrea, "And it has been referred to the Fraud Department. I don't know what happened."

Andrea has applied for $10,000 to make the total up to the easy to receive $25,000 and received a letter saying it had been successful. Now, it is a matter of when that money drops into his bank account.

The fraudulent $15,000 claim is with a Service NSW case worker, "They have been amazing," Andrea added, " They are doing everything they can to help us and have referred the matter to the Fraud Department to launch an investigation."

The second case of fraud occurred through voting for the Federal Election.

Kerri had applied for a postal vote and was waiting for it to arrive.

When Kerri received an email from the Australian Electoral commission saying "your vote has been completed and returned" she knew that someone had stolen her postal vote.

"If you ordered a postal vote, keep an eye on your letterbox and emails," Kerri said,"If you haven't completed your postal vote, ring the number in the email ASAP. Vote fraud is serious and can result in jail time."

The two stories pose as a warning for everyone to be aware that fraudulent activity is on the rise in the Northern Rivers.