There’s a popular scam now, where 1) you post something for sale, 2) they pay with a check, cashier’s check, etc, for a greater amount, 3) you return the excess or send it to their shipping vendor or etc, 4) their check is no good and you are out the excess, and often 5) they cancel the purchase and ask for the rest back so you are out that also.
Or, you may receive the correct amount and deliver the item, but it’s still a fraudulent payment. You just got robbed of the item.
The amounts are usually in the low thousands, but vary.
When the bank shows the funds as ‘available,’ you send the scammer the excess (or just spend the money elsewhere), and then you are on the hook to make it good. Not the bank’s fault (hah)(they made sure of the rules long ago) that you believed it was good. They make the funds available, but it isn’t good until the check has been validated and cleared, up to two weeks later.
It can be worse. Some people depositing the counterfeit cashier’s check, money order, bearer bond, bank draft, etc, get arrested.
The General Question is, when you endorse a financial instrument, are you not making yourself responsible for it?
And it appears that if the money is wired to your account, without your endorsement, the bank will still come after you to make it real. Paper checks can be deposited without your knowledge or endorsement also. So, by spending the money, are you responsible for making that good also?