PSA — forged check wiped out my checking account

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:First of all, why do you have $12k in a bank account?

Put that in another type of account to make you more in interest!

Secondly, no more checks, you grandmas and grandpas!

If they won't accept an online payment, find another company/service. It's 2022 not 2002.

I find DCUM posters who don’t bother to read the posts and then comment supremely annoying.

As I said, before, I am a freelancer and often get large deposits. I don’t get a “regualr” paycheck.

Also, I have bills. I pay my mortgage, my mother’s AL payment, and that alone adds up to 8.5k a month.

I don’t need to have a reason why i had 12k in my bank. It’s a bank. It’s supposed to be safe.

I did nothing irresponsible so stop trying to blame me. Yeesh.

Just ignore. A good savings rate is 1%, so basically worthless.

[Anonymous]

My DH is a freelance writer and someone tried to scam him with a fake check. Hired him to write, sent him a check for more than his fee saying extra it was for part two of assignment. He said it felt hinky and started looking closely. Check was a forgery, info stollen from a small church in the Midwest. He is a journalist and so reported scam to FBI, called the church to alert them…and then started trying to figure out who the scammers are and what their plan was. He told them he cashed check (he didn’t) and they then told him second part of assignment was cancelled, and to send back half of fee. He worked for days to try to identify anyone, but it was all stollen info and addresses and identities.

FBI and local police never even called him back. Total fraud was for about $6,000 and it just is too small for them to care, I think.

It pissed my DH off because they are defrauding churches and journalists who already paid so poorly. If you want to steal, can’t you steal from the rich? (Joking)

We think scammers found DH on LinkedIn. Not sure how they got his rate, but they seemed to know it.

Freelancers, beware.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:First of all, why do you have $12k in a bank account?

Put that in another type of account to make you more in interest!

Secondly, no more checks, you grandmas and grandpas!

If they won't accept an online payment, find another company/service. It's 2022 not 2002.

I find DCUM posters who don’t bother to read the posts and then comment supremely annoying.

As I said, before, I am a freelancer and often get large deposits. I don’t get a “regualr” paycheck.

Also, I have bills. I pay my mortgage, my mother’s AL payment, and that alone adds up to 8.5k a month.

I don’t need to have a reason why i had 12k in my bank. It’s a bank. It’s supposed to be safe.

I did nothing irresponsible so stop trying to blame me. Yeesh.

Our local church preschool is now adding a service fee to CC payments so the only options are check or CC. I refuse to pay an additional 4% (more than any cash back I would make on my CC anyways) so checks it is. Everything else we use CC or cash.

Was going to say something similar. Plenty of small businesses, even arlington country parks and refs classes, charge a percentage to use a cc to cover the cc transaction costs. No thank you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m not sure how you were naive. You didn’t know anything wrong and this could happen to anyone. This is why our bank accounts are insured in the US.

This. Our bank and credit cards are insured. The bank/issuer assumes all risk which they insure. I don't think most other countries do that.

[Anonymous]

FBI and local police never even called him back. Total fraud was for about $6,000 and it just is too small for them to care, I think.

I’m the PP with the dad that this happened to - he called the Montgomery County police and they didn’t follow up either.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My DH is a freelance writer and someone tried to scam him with a fake check. Hired him to write, sent him a check for more than his fee saying extra it was for part two of assignment. He said it felt hinky and started looking closely. Check was a forgery, info stollen from a small church in the Midwest. He is a journalist and so reported scam to FBI, called the church to alert them…and then started trying to figure out who the scammers are and what their plan was. He told them he cashed check (he didn’t) and they then told him second part of assignment was cancelled, and to send back half of fee. He worked for days to try to identify anyone, but it was all stollen info and addresses and identities.

FBI and local police never even called him back. Total fraud was for about $6,000 and it just is too small for them to care, I think.

It pissed my DH off because they are defrauding churches and journalists who already paid so poorly. If you want to steal, can’t you steal from the rich? (Joking)

We think scammers found DH on LinkedIn. Not sure how they got his rate, but they seemed to know it.

Freelancers, beware.

What did the scammers hire him to write about?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
This kind of error really is the bank's fault. They should do their due diligence and check signatures, address, etc.

Are you going to get your 12K back?
The bank should be on the hook for all fees, etc due to bounced checks or missed payments.

It's always been really appalling that the US is still very dependent on checking, a very unsecure method, for financial transactions. I had a roommate from Europe in 2008 here and he didn't understand the concept of checking because it was very rare in Europe to use checks to pay rent. Must have been REALLY confusing to him when I told him he had to pay me in money orders because another roommate bounced his check. It's 2022 and people are still getting ripped off through check fraud. How very American.

Doesn't make me feel any better than the "new and improved" financial transaction fad, Venmo, Paypal, CashApp, etc, have little consumer protections. So if you get scammed or hacked or make a mistake while paying someone, tough luck, you're screwed!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Our local church preschool is now adding a service fee to CC payments so the only options are check or CC. I refuse to pay an additional 4% (more than any cash back I would make on my CC anyways) so checks it is. Everything else we use CC or cash.

My dentist is doing this now. Really infuriates me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Our local church preschool is now adding a service fee to CC payments so the only options are check or CC. I refuse to pay an additional 4% (more than any cash back I would make on my CC anyways) so checks it is. Everything else we use CC or cash.

My dentist is doing this now. Really infuriates me.

I would blame the CC company and not the small business. The business gets charged a percent of the CC transaction, so they’re trying to pass on the cost to the customers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Our local church preschool is now adding a service fee to CC payments so the only options are check or CC. I refuse to pay an additional 4% (more than any cash back I would make on my CC anyways) so checks it is. Everything else we use CC or cash.

My dentist is doing this now. Really infuriates me.

I would blame the CC company and not the small business. The business gets charged a percent of the CC transaction, so they’re trying to pass on the cost to the customers.

Of course the processor charges the merchant. That's how they make money.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Our local church preschool is now adding a service fee to CC payments so the only options are check or CC. I refuse to pay an additional 4% (more than any cash back I would make on my CC anyways) so checks it is. Everything else we use CC or cash.

My dentist is doing this now. Really infuriates me.

Why? You expect small businesses, to eat up the 3.5% service fees that the credit card companies charge them to process CC's. This can be a huge amount of money that they could get charged. And in many cases, they can't make that back by raising prices. Insurance companies limit the amount that they can get reimbursed for services. And it's hard to them to pass on the cost differential between what they need to cover overhead, costs ad staffing, and what the insurance companies reimburse them for. So they end up between a rock and a hard place. They can't afford to operate at a loss and if they push too many fees back to the patients, then they lose patients. So, it's hard to raise the overage costs that get passed back to customers. Transparency in CC vs check/cash fees help them keep the surcharges over insurance down. Then patients can make the decision whether they'd rather pay with check or pay the surcharge. If they raise the costs across the board, then everyone pays the higher rates, rather than just the ones that want to use CC.

I'd rather pay a lower fee by check than to pay a higher fee just because other people want to use a CC. If I want, I can always opt to pay the CC surcharge.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is why we keep as small of a balance in our checking account as possible and we only write checks or use our debit card when we absolutely need to. On all other purchases we use credit cards which have much better fraud protection in place. Also, it's not your routing number that puts you at risk, anyone can find a bank's routing number, it's your account number.

But even with a small balance, your account could still be wiped out and any auto payments would bounce.

[Anonymous]

This is a dumb post. This happens every day and has happened for 50 years. Electronic payment systems have same issues. Bank does not check details because it is cheaper to make customers whole than pay people to do dd. Bank will make you whole. There should be no fees for you to pay at all. If there are any complain. This should not cause anyone to change the way they do their money.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
This kind of error really is the bank's fault. They should do their due diligence and check signatures, address, etc.

Are you going to get your 12K back?
The bank should be on the hook for all fees, etc due to bounced checks or missed payments.

It's always been really appalling that the US is still very dependent on checking, a very unsecure method, for financial transactions. I had a roommate from Europe in 2008 here and he didn't understand the concept of checking because it was very rare in Europe to use checks to pay rent. Must have been REALLY confusing to him when I told him he had to pay me in money orders because another roommate bounced his check. It's 2022 and people are still getting ripped off through check fraud. How very American.

Doesn't make me feel any better than the "new and improved" financial transaction fad, Venmo, Paypal, CashApp, etc, have little consumer protections. So if you get scammed or hacked or make a mistake while paying someone, tough luck, you're screwed!

Despite what the right says, this country is far too pro business and it is hurting all of us. I used to work at an agency responsible for banking and was constantly appalled at how staff recommendations were ignored. The banking industry gets what the banking industry wants.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Our local church preschool is now adding a service fee to CC payments so the only options are check or CC. I refuse to pay an additional 4% (more than any cash back I would make on my CC anyways) so checks it is. Everything else we use CC or cash.

My dentist is doing this now. Really infuriates me.

Our family doctor as well. She doesn't take any insurance and because of the way she writes up the bills, our insurance is reimbursing us 0$.