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  Home >> Scams/Fraud >> Internet Fraud/Phishing  
Cashed Money Order Went Bad: What should I do?

I recently sold a bedroom set on eBay. I was sent three money orders and cashed them at my bank. The bank didn't question the money orders and I thought that they were fine. A few days later the bank called me and told me that the money orders were bad.

I had already spent about a third of the money on bills and returned the rest to the bank. Am I responsible? Shouldn't the bank have held the money order for a few days before cashing it? What should I do?


Person A sent you money orders. You deposited them to your bank. Your bank gave you the money equal to the face value of the money orders. When the money orders are refused as worthless, the transaction goes backwards. The bank then wants the money from you and you need to collect from the person who gave them to you.

The bank didn't sell goods or services and doesn't benefit from this transaction. You did. Your bank is not liable to absorb any of this loss.

First you need to contact your bank and attempt to make payment arrangements for the money they are still owed. Then you have to contact eBay and blast the buyer, so that hopefully they can't do this again. You may also consider contacting your local police about this.

These scams are not uncommon and you are certainly not the first to have this happen. That isn't of much consolation though. Hopefully you hadn't shipped the goods or refunded the buyer any overpayment. We have many such cases in the Scams/Fraud section of our site and we will point you to this one in particular as it is similar to your case.

Published on BankingQuestions.com 7/25/07