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Home >> Checks/Money Orders >> Checks You Received
Bank Responsibilities on Deposited Checks
I was a victim of fraud where I cashed two checks in amounts of $1850 and $1300. They both bounced, of course, and now the bank is coming after me for the money and has frozen my account. With only $500 in my account at the time should I have even been allowed to cash those checks? Shouldn't they have made me deposit them? Second, what are teller responsibilities and don't they type in the information from the check to verify if it's a valid routing number and account number? The bank is claiming no responsibility and will not even help in the investigation and has dumped it all on me claiming it's my fault. Any information would help on bank responsibilities with check cashing.
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 Sorry to hear that you were scammed. You may be surprised to hear that you have a lot of company; fraudulent check schemes are favorite ways for fraud artists to steal, both from banks and from their customers.
Experience tells that it would not have made much difference if your bank had insisted that you deposit those checks, rather than cash them. Most of these check scams are designed so that a bank that accepts a bogus check for deposit almost always has to make the funds available for withdrawal before it learns that the check is counterfeit. Many fraudulent checks, in fact, are drawn on Canadian banks, which greatly expands the time that it takes to learn they aren't worth the paper they are printed on.
As for wishing that the teller had the ability to verify that the checks were drawn on legitimate accounts -- it's a nice idea, but banks are not interconnected in ways to allow for that sort of verification, and because of the time and expense involved, it's often impractical, if not impossible, to telephone a bank to check on the authenticity of a check. Both you and your bank were victimized in this scam. However, your endorsement of the checks means you are obligated to the bank to pay it back for the checks. We know that's not welcome news, but if you're looking for someone to blame, don't forget the fraud artist that put the checks into your hands.
We hope that you are able to work out some form of repayment schedule with the bank. In the meantime, if you want to learn more about some of the scams that you need to avoid, look to the left of your screen, and click on the link in the blue bar that reads "Scams/Fraud."
Published on BankingQuestions.com 5/17/07
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