In this obvious scam, what might happen to my co-worker?

Factual Questions
42

There was a case of a guy in the USA who was in the same sort of scam. He asked the cashier if the cheque was good. He then had the bank manager verify the cheque also. He was assured the cheque was good after some preliminary checking, so he passed on the overpayment to the sender. Then the cheque bounced. he sued the bank and won, since he had relied on the bank’s assurances.

I gathered this was a case of a very good counterfeit cheque - it would pass the preliminary validation, but once it was in the hands of the issuing bank they could tell it was a copy. (I assume one way to do that would be to get an actual cashier’s cheque, make a copy, then cash the real one. The look and numbers all check out, but the basic printing will be seen to be a forgery on close examination?).

43

Banks in the UK will credit a cheque paid into an account before it has cleared. When the issuing bank is in another country, this can take a while, so it is easy to think that the money is safe in your account when they can still (and quite legally) take it back if the issuing bank says ‘no funds’ or some such. This is made clear in the bank’s T’s&C’s so no comeback to them.

44

Something to do with Pareto’s laws of economics, I think. (IANAE.)