it's up to whoever issues the check , to make sure it's counterfit proof...
just like money has safety features built in to it...

Get used to this sort of internet BS. I'm more concerned with U.S. companies burning us with rubber checks.

Here's the latest attempt from abroad on our company:

Dear Sir/Madam.

I am Mike,sales manager for Oceanic procurements services,Plot 209/210 Sussex London.We specialise in purchase of auto-machineries for special interest customers ,and we get paid in commission,after payment has been confirmed by the seller to the buyer. At present we have a customer interested in purchasing your auto mentioned above for the sum of $1275 and we will arrange for the pick up of the vehicle once payment is confirmed cleared by you. Please acknowledge the offer and we will inform the buyer contact you for confirmation of acceptance to sell and have the funds remitted to you via cashier cheque as soon as possible. Our Head office is located in Sussex,London ,but we have branches in other parts of europe.I will be expecting an immediate reply from you as soon as possible.

Thanks,

Mike.

Please be more specific as to the business you wish to conduct with us. Do you wish to purchase a torque-biasing differential? (Quaife brand is torque-biasing, not limited-slip.) For what vehicle?

Hello,

Thank to you for accepting the offer to sell your New Quaife limited slip to myclient. I am particularly impressed by the prompt attention accorded the matter considering the need for us to conclude the deal in a timelymanner, I have spoken to my client and he accepted to pay $1,275 as you have requested.I will want to restate clearly that i am an autoprocurement agent based in london. Towards concluding the entire deal and issuance of the cashiers check there is a slight issue which i believe should not be a problem if i can get my the message clearly to you. I want to let you know if you will be able to treat this in a full trust for you,In order to conclude the deal as soon as possible my client has said he can only be able to raise a cashiers check for the sales of the New Quaife limited slip and the entire shipping charges of the New Quaife limited slip from there to its new destination. This means the cashiers check that will be sent to you will include an excess amount
which is $8,500 for the money for the sales of your New Quaife limited slip, my commission as an agent and the shippers fees for organising a home pick up service from your base down to london its new origin, so the check will be in the amount of $9,775 you will deduct the cost of New Quaife limited slip which is $1,275 and send the balance of $8,500 to my customer via western union money transfer or money gram money transfer. You need not to worry as our prepaid shipping company will come to pick the New Quaife limited slip up from your base for shippment to South west London . The reason for this shippment method is as a result of the conjestion of the port, which does not make it directly shippable there , where the item will be shipped to, and the check will include the fees i mentioned above because the cashier check according to my client is a refund been refunded back to him, and the company making out this refund will only make it out in one cashier to him, so he is trusting you to handle his funds with care and honesty. i will pay to the shipping company and my commision back to my client through western union money transfer method or money gram money transfer as soon as the check is cashed and you deduct the money for the sales of your car. Please your answer on this will enable me to issue a directive to my client on the need to contact the company to get the check ready and send it to you with out any further delay .If you agree to assist in this capacity , Will you please send your contact ADDRESS that is your home or office address where my client should send the check , your NAME to be on check and TELEPHONE NUMBER so that i will instruct my client to send the check by express priority mail to you.Please get back to me as soon as possible. Thanks , Mike.

The point of the entire thread is that the cashiers check is counterfeit! Of course B of A would be liable if it is a real check.

Wrong. How is a clerk at a bank in Boston going to know exactly what a cashiers check from a bank in Atlanta looks like? Every bank is different.

The crook does not have to make the fake check look even remotely like a check from bank "X". As long as it looks like a real cashiers check it will go through until it is rejected by the federal reserve.

This has become a pointless thread. The fraud is real. This is the way cashiers checks work in the US. Wishing it were not so will not make it go away. Don't accept cashiers checks unless you are absolutely sure it is real and you know the buyer personally.

I guess the moral of the story is to insist that the buyer purchase a cashiers check from a major recognizable bank. That would minimize the risk as a major institution would be harder to conterfiet.

Hi Mark, I wouldn't call it a worthless thread. Some surprising eye popping information here. Could save someone from making a costly mistake in judgement. I mean I always assumed that once you cash a cashiers check at the bank that that was the end of it. Apparently not so.

Sorry, just getting a little frustrated. All I wanted to do was to save the original poster from getting scammed and hopefully others too. :p

You would think so, but the average teller making $9/hr has no more idea what a Citibank cashiers check looks like than a cashiers check from a savings and loan 3,000 miles away.

Webini's point is that there is a difference between an NSF check and a fake check! A cashier's check should have the funds, of course... providing that it is genuine!


-MAS

Great discussion, and again, thanks for all the feedback.

I'm sure the mere visibility of this post will encourage a lot of folks on this board to be more careful about this sort of thing.

Wyatt

I recently sold a car to someone about 10 states away. When I asked my bank the safest way they told me to have the money wired to my account. I took the title to the bank and when the money was safely in my account the bank mailed the title. This service cost $13.00. They also said that certified, cashiers checks were not totally safe. They said a Postal Money Order is safer but not 100%. Western Union is a joke. They will hand out money to anyone. Regards, Roy

true , but there's also a difference between a genuine 10 dollar bill and a fake one... but the bank will tell you on the spot if it's real or not... nobody would accept it if they called you 2 weeks after making a deposit.. claiming it was fake...

the problem is they shouldn't put money in your account , untill they are 100% certain that the check is fully A OK... but they don't ... for some reason the system has become used to giving cash up front , even though they didn't clear the check or are willing to accept the responsibility in case it doesn't clear...

and that's the problem .. the consumer isn't protected, they assume the money is allready theirs, while in fact it's not...

the banks could solve that by ensuring the checks are more difficult to copy ( costs ) and by ensuring they have a more efficient system to clear checks, days , not weeks ( again costs ) or by simply fasing out the use of checks all together in favour of electronic payments at an advanced schedule, and actually advertising this new preffered way of doing things, by marketing and incentives or by adding additional costs ( takes time , effort, marketing, and thus costs ) probably also a problem of changing mentallity , over come the old thinking of cash money is the best, electronic means big brother is watching etc etc.. but then again , only criminals have big stuff to hide and should fear big brother, since let's face it , small potatoes won't get 5 feds scrutinizing their every move and transaction...

question > how many of you do still get your salary in the form of a paycheck??? if i'm not mistaken , this is still the defacto standard over there?

over here, nobody has ever been payed cash since ages , it's all done via wire transfer for as long as i can remember ( the exception beeing non full employments in small bussinesses , like waiters or summerjobs.. and even them it's usually done by wire)
there's no advantage to having paychecks to anybody... we have our money in our account on a preagreed day, available for use with our bankcards or for use via online wire transfers... secure, protected, little cash , no problems with fake checks or clearing checks...for companies too it has advantages , since they do the transfer, and have all employees payed on the same day.. no more hastle with paychecks beeing lost, stolen , forged, whatever...

I'll try this one more time. The genuine checks DO have anti-copy technology. That is not the issue. The issue is with a totally FAKE check. There is no way for a bank teller to know this.

Customers refuse to eliminate checks. Banks cannot force this. Believe me, there are incentives in place. For instance, most if not all US banks waive account fees if your paycheck is sent via Direct Deposit. Free electronic billpay is also common. But a large percentage of customers still want to see and use a check.

A regular check clears in no more than 48 hours. Cashiers checks take longer by their very nature.

Simply wishing that this not so will not make it change.

SmileWavy

well , y'all have some pretty messed up customers then...

http://www.pelicanparts.com/support/smileys/shake.gif Uh boy

Not going to touch it, not worth the effort.