WATERLOO -- A Waterloo man has been arrested for passing counterfeit checks he received as part of an Internet scam.

Police arrested Arlin William Dempster, 75, of 1707 Mt. Village Drive, for forgery after he deposited a bogus check for $5,800 and then withdrew some of the money from the bank.

Dempster had submitted counterfeit checks in the past -- at least six times since 2002 -- usually after receiving them from people he met over the Internet, police said.

Such checks are usually part of a ploy to get the recipient to cash them and then send a portion of the money to the person who made the check, police said. With such cons, the goal is to get cash from the bank before the bank realizes the check isn't any good.

Officers had warned Dempster that the checks he passed weren't any good and asked him to stop, court records state.

Even so, on June 13 he used the counterfeit $5,800 check to open an account at First Security State Bank. He withdrew $500 that day and then returned three days later to get $2,000.

The check was later determined to be fraudulent.

While talking with police investigators, Dempster said he knew there was a possibility the check was counterfeit but needed money to pay back other banks where he had passed counterfeit checks, records state.

He was released from jail pending his trial.

Contact Jeff Reinitz at (319) 291-1578 or jeff.reinitz@wcfcourier.com.