Posted on 08/08/2012 4:37:55 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
It was a cheque, made out in my name, for $95,093.35 and it came in a junk-mail letter from a get-rich-quick company. It was worthless, meant only as a financial tease, a lip-licking come-on. “This is how much money you could soon be making.” What it was never meant for was deposit. But that’s exactly what made the thought of depositing it so irresistibly funny. What could possibly be funnier than depositing a perfectly ridiculous, obviously false, fake cheque? (Did I mention it had “non-negotiable” clearly written on it?) So, as a joke, I deposited the fake cheque into my bank’s ATM. I felt like a million bucks doing so. I’d never had so much fun at my bank. Come to think of it, I’d never had any fun at my bank until the moment I endorsed the back of this “cheque” with a smiley face and slipped the Monopoly-like money into the mouth of the hungry ATM. For the first time ever, I walked away from my bank laughing.
What I expected to happen next was a short phone call from my bank. Or a letter informing me of what I already knew, that the cheque I deposited was not real.
Admittedly, I also hoped for a compliment on my refined sense of humour. A “Mr Combs, what you deposited was not real but very funny, especially considering your real bank account balance history” (an account always bouncing into overdraft).
But the call or the letter never came and I forgot about my joke. Then, five days later, I returned to withdraw some cash from the ATM, and noticed a much higher than usual bank balance. $95,093.35 higher! The bank had credited my account with the fake, false, stupid cheque!
(Excerpt) Read more at ft.com ...
You’re going to jail.
no joke.
“You’re going to jail.
no joke.”
LOLOLOLOL. Ahhhhhhhhh, only laugh I had this gloomy morning! Thanks soooo much!
He knowingly committed fraud. (At least it would be in the U.S.)
Idiots are us. What an Obama supporter! Everybody’s is correct. You’ve committed fraud. Not only fraud but now you are going to be charged a fee by your bank for their cost to send that worthless piece of paper through the fed...it’s called a charge back.
The idiot who wrote this article goes on and on why he thinks he is in the right and actually justifies why he should have the money in some points.
First, he misunderstands the 10-day-24-hour rule. The bank has 10 days to be notified by the clearing house then they have 24 hours to notify him. Not 24 hours from when he deposited the check.
Second, even though he read that the ‘non-negotiable’ isn’t valid, that doesn’t change that he knowingly deposited a fraudulent check.
Third, by cashing out the $95K to ‘protect it’ so he could give it back, this raises even more red flags of purposeful fraud. The bank can’t just reverse the charge now if you don’t have the $95K in your bank so you purposefully and knowingly deposited a fraudulent check then you removed the funds from your bank so it couldn’t be reversed.
This almost sounds like some idiot trying to justify his way out of committing a crime- and his findings in the law are just as stupid as the guy who goes to court and claims it isn’t a valid court because there is fringe on the flag.
I hope this smug punk reporter gets a few days in jail.
Yes, he seems to think the Bank stole the money from him! The bank only acts as an agent between the two parties, the check writer and the check casher. I’m sure his experience would have been different if he had gone to a teller to cash or even deposit the check. And why should the bank be all sweet to him when they think he’s trying to commit fraud! What an idiot.
Nice. Tell the secret service guys that show up at your door that it’s a joke. You knowingly committed bank fraud. And since you did it at an ATM you also committed wire fraud.
And he you wrote about it.
You sir, are an idiot.
And the sad part is he is an official journalist for Financial Times which mean there are people out there that look to him for advice.
Idiot.
This is old news. The story doesn’t mention dates for some reason. This guys does a one man show about his experience, which I’ve seen. He’s been doing it for years.
He didn’t knowingly deposit a fraudulent check. He knowingly deposited a fake check, which he expected to not work. What he learned was the check turned out to be perfectly legal. The get rich quick company had sent out valid checks in its mailings.
If you get a valid check in the mail, even if you don’t realize it, is it your fault if the bank processes it? Or is it the fault of the party sending out lots of valid checks?
Also, he didn’t cash out the money for weeks. He kept checking with the bank. He never spent the money.
He's a guy with a one man show about his experience that happened years ago. He's performing in the UK and the Financial Times wrote this piece on him.
I should say, the Financial Times published this piece by him. He does have writer credit. But it appears to be nothing more than a promo for his show. It’s the equivalent of taking a press release and publishing it as a story.
the requirement is guilty mind WITH a guilty act.
If we take it at face value, he has no intention of keeping the money.
That said, this article could be an alibi effort to remove the guilty mind from the guilty act.
I would imagine the bank is humiliated enough not to press charges.
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