How could the bank know? They can’t tell till the check goes through the system and the paying bank does/does not honour it.
And on top of that, if YOU receive a check, and deposit it, and the check bounces and your deposit is reversed, then YOUR bank will charge YOU a bounced-check fee as well. Many banks do this.
NOT fine. This scam is built on the fact that the bank will say “It’s good, deposit it!” because they have nothing to lose. If you deposit the check and it is actually good, no skin off their nose. If you deposit the check and it isn’t good and you took money out, no skin off their nose because they still get their money…from you.
… and further, even if the bank assures you the check is fine, when the check ultimately bounces the bank will almost certainly take the money from your account (because that is standard procedure), and while you might then successfully go through some longwinded complaint procedure to get them to turn that around based on their earlier assurance, there is no way it would be worth the hassle.
From what I’ve read about this sort of scam, it can take weeks before the bank figures out the check is fraudulent.
Was it a normal cheque or appear to be a certified cheque? IIRC from the news item I’d read, the scam included counterfeiting a certified cheque - which is why the bank assured the guy it was good. It never occured to the bank an apparently valid certified cheque could be bogus. A real certified cheque is guaranteed to clear, cannot be cancelled.
You will want a video of the teller or manager saying it was good - there’s no guarantee the will “remember” telling you it was guaranteed good when push comes to shove.
And it may not matter even if the bank does remember telling you this.
Read your terms of service, or account disclosures, or whatever they call that document that you agreed to by the mere act of opening an account. It is chock full of disclaimers to the effect that, in case of any dispute or loss between the bank and you, you’ve already automatically lost your case.
Cover your ass. Always have two or more accounts at different banks, with your money divided among them so that, at the very least, if one bank freezes your account due to a dispute, or error, or whatever, you will at least have enough money elsewhere to live on for a while.
If a bank freezes your account due to some error or misunderstanding, there is a good chance (maybe) that you can get it worked out in your favor eventually. But it may take time. And in the meanwhile, you may not have access to your money.
Plus I noticed in my Citibank branch a sign warning against photographing or filming so I doubt they will let you record them saying the check is valid.
If they wont go on the record, that should tell you something.
It will tell you that they are like just about every other bank out there.
Where did I say to take money out?
Of course you don’t.
But if a bank employee says it is OK, then they will reverse any fees.
They can examine the check, check it vs a list they have, call the bank, all sorts of things.
They have ways of checking, I have done this myself. You two seem to think that the OP should take advice from rando posters, instead of his actual bank.
If you just deposit it, it can take that long.
And some banks may not want to be helpful, they might say “Deposit if you wish, the risk is yours”- in that case I would not deposit it, and i would consider changing banks.
None of these mean the check won’t bounce. Even if there is money in the paying account, that could be taken out 30 seconds later. None of these steps are likely to result in an iron clad guarantee they will underwrite the check, if it is fraudulent. And getting a refund of fees later is a lot of hassle to go through for an obvious scam.
We were asked for advice and we are giving it. You are a rando poster advising the OP to take the check to the bank, and myself and @Czarcasm are rando posters advising him there is no way it is worth doing.
There is zero chance whatever that some rando nominally hired the OP’s son (someone they’ve never even met), then sent the OP’s son a good upfront check for $1950. Unless that rando is insane, its a scam.
That’s NOT good advice. What if you wind up asking a teller who has not heard of this scam yet? Now you’ve been told it’s all good, by someone who has no clue, and you’re at risk of all the other downstream issues mentioned above.
My in-laws got a check for their tax refund. It was from a legitimate bank that processes refunds for TurboTax-filed returns. Only, it was a scam return filed using their names. FIL really, really, really, REALLY wanted to do just this: take it to the bank, and ask if it was a legit check. The bank, not knowing the situation would have said “yeah, that’s a real sending bank, looks OK to me…”. Which would have opened them up to a whole lot of heartburn once the IRS wanted their money back (generally after the scammers had already demanded the money be returned to them").
What refund? Nor do I expect the bank to underwrite it. What they can do (but might not) is guarantee you would not be charged a fee if it did bounce.
If you get a weird check like that, you do not touch that deposit for at least a month.
It does smell, of course. I said as much.
But based upon your thoughts "
No one would ever deposit any check, as that is always true. It is a risk- I had a security job long, long ago, with a large company and we had to race to their bank to cash our checks because the next day they’d bounce.
I am not saying deposit it, i am saying let a expert make the decision.
Is it possible to go to the issuing bank and try to cash it?
I don’t if the issuing bank will give out cash, but they should at least be able to verify if the account is real, and has adequate funds.
Pretty much this. It just didn’t make sense and the deeper I looked the weirder it got.
The bank is headquartered and only has branches in Texas and we’re in NYC.
That is exactly what you will not get.
The bank teller is an expert in depositing checks that meet their minimum requirement in looking authentic, because she/he/they know that their ass is covered by doing what their bosses tell them to do then moving on to the next customer in line. If that check later bounces, that “expert” isn’t held responsible-you are.
That you are even entertaining the possibility of this not being an obvious scam shows how much of “a expert” you actually are.
[Moderating]
@DrDeth , you have been previously instructed not to give this precise advice, on the grounds that it is dangerous and possibly illegal. That makes this a violation of moderator instruction, which earns you an official Warning.