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Home >> Scams/Fraud
Sixteen Year Old Scammed; What is my recourse?
My sixteen year old son was scammed by a person who presented him with a check he needed help cashing. My son felt this person needed help and took him to our bank where he had a savings account. He went into the bank with a $500 out-of-state check with his name hand-written into the line. That's what the guy told him. He knows better now, trust me. The bank took down his account number and driver's license number and handed him the cash. Then my son came back in the bank with a second check the guy needed cashed, but the bank refused because it was made out to the other guy.
Two parts to this question. Is there any regulation that says a minor can't cash a personal check unless he has enough funds to cover it? He had $300 in savings? What responsibility does the bank have to help prevent this type of scam? The teller notified the bank manager after my son came back in with the second check, but then did nothing. I came back in within thirty minutes, knowing this was not good, and all they could say was: better go back and get the money from him, and it will take a week to know if the check is good. Now of course the check is not good, and I am told to get his account current as soon as possible.
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 Your son was scammed. Looking at the transaction dispassionately, it made absolutely no sense. Your son undoubtedly looked like the ideal "mark": a youthful, trusting individual without much real-world experience in a world where there are scam artists.
There is no regulation that would prevent a minor from cashing a check without a sufficient balance to cover. Many banks would have refused to cash the check because of the savings account balance; others might have a threshold amount below which they would not bother to check the savings balance. Would it have made your son or you feel any better if he had had $500 in his savings account to cover the check? Perhaps, because although his account would have been wiped out when the bogus check bounced, the bank would not be looking for another $200 to cover the shortfall. The first transaction may have looked legitimate in every way, so the bank cannot be faulted for having accepted it.
Consider reporting the incident to the local police. They might get lucky and grab the crook, but there isn't much hope of recovering the $500 cost of this unhappy lesson.
Published on BankingQuestions.com 8/28/08
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