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Hugh Pickens writes “The San Francisco Chronicle reports that last year a Long Beach law firm received an e-mail from a Hong Kong businessman seeking help collecting debts from American customers. After a month of signing paperwork and exchanging telephone calls, the attorney received word that one debtor had sent a $200,000 cashier’s check to pay off his balance. The attorney deposited it in his firm’s account, subtracted his $10,000 fee and wired the remaining $190,000 to his Hong Kong client. Then the attorney’s bank called and told him the $200,000 check had bounced. ‘They send me a nice, big, worthless check,’ says the attorney. In this case, the bank was able to prevent the wire transfer from reaching its destination, but attorneys say they are on the receiving end of sophisticated scams with increasing frequency that include attacks to steal client data that can be sold or used to learn the details of future litigation.”
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Obvious answer… - by jonwil (Score: 2) Thread
Obvious answer is for the lawyers to stop accepting personal cheques and insist on money orders, bank cheques, cash, credit cards, wire transfer or other methods that cant bounce.
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Re:Obvious answer… - by putaro (Score: 2) Thread
And so you too would have gotten taken by this scam. They received a cashier’s check (aka bank cheque) and their bank accepted it. They, like you, believed that an accepted bank cheque was as good as cash so they wired the refund (which, FYI, is the same as cash, since you can’t take it back) and got stuck.
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How About … - by WrongSizeGlass (Score: 3, Insightful) Thread
… no one sends anyone else any money until they verify that the check they’ve received is good?
The first time I get payment from a client I always wait to see if it clears before moving forward on a project. It’s one of the reasons we require deposits before starting work.
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Also been a problem for regular people - by Kjella (Score: 4, Informative) Thread
Classic scam:
1, Scammer pretends to be a buyer for some fairly expensive product, e.g. a car
2. Scammer sends false cashier’s check to client
3. Scammer asks to cancel the deal because of some crisis, offers to cover any expenses he’s had and a compensation for wasting their time
4. Many people will have compassion for their situation and agree to undo the sale
5. They wire the reminder - maybe 90% of the purchase price - back
6. The check sent in #2 bounces, the money returned in #5 gone and they’re out a ton of money
7. Profit, for the scammer. No ??? here.
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Well… - by santax (Score: 4, Funny) Thread
Your a lawyer… go sue ‘em boy!
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