I am suing my bank because I brought them a cashier's check that I told them I thought could be fake. All they did was check the routing numbers (which were valid) and they told me it was good and cashed it. Then they pulled the money from my account when the cashier's check was returned. Of course I had already spent the funds based on their guarantee that the check was good.
How would I go about getting an official statement from a banking person stating that this is not adequate verification? Being a veterinarian and not a banker, and trusting my long-term bank, I thought they knew what they were doing. I have attempted to talk with other banks in my area, but nobody wants to write down that another bank erred, even when they tell me verbally that they did.
Cashier's checks are meant to be like cash. Scammers know this and have perpetrated many frauds using faked cashier's checks. Some are very good and are not detectable as fakes except by the issuing bank. This means the check has to be processed through the payment system before it is known that the check is no good. Many banks will not, or can not tell you over the telephone if the check is good or not.
Banks also have laws and regulations they must follow on making deposited funds available. The scammers also know this and use it to their advantage. The check often has to be made available to the customer, before it has time to travel to the distant, often international bank, and back as a fraudulent item.
If the cashier's check is returned, the transaction gets "undone" one step at a time. It ends with your bank taking the funds away from you and you are expected to recoup your funds from whomever benefited from it as well. The problem here is that your bank had to say the funds were available before any of you knew the check was no good.
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Cashier's checks are meant to be like cash. Scammers know this and have perpetrated many frauds using faked cashier's checks. Some are very good and are not detectable as fakes except by the issuing bank. This means the check has to be processed through the payment system before it is known that the check is no good. Many banks will not, or can not tell you over the telephone if the check is good or not.