A Typical Bank Scam

When you talk about banking you have to imagine there are a lot of scams going on. The least complicated scam is when a person opens a checking account using someone else's information and receives an ATM card. They then deposit an empty envelop but they key in a dollar amount of say $300 they will then withdraw some of that money even when there is actually nothing in the checking account. Sometimes it's the actual owner of the account that tries this. Customers such as this can end up getting reported to chex systems for abusing their account. They are then placed on a data base which all banks have access to. If they attempt to open a checking account at another bank their previous bank will check with chex systems to see if they owe money or if they are on that data base.

A more complicated scam, which normally separates people from more of their money, deals with some type of internet scam. An unsuspecting customer is contacted over the internet about some money making home business or some product. The person initiating the scam will tell the person that they will send the person a check for say $4,500 and they must send by western union $1,500 to the scammer as a fee to receive the product or service.

The customer will take the check and deposit it into their own checking account. They will check with the bank teller or manager and ask if the check is good. These checks actually look like actual checks so sometimes people who work at banks are fooled. It can take no time for the check to clear. The customer then takes the $1,500 out of their checking account and sends it by western union to the scammer. What have they got to lose? It's not their money right? The money came from the proceeds of the $4,500 check. Unfortunately the check is not any good and it will be returned and charged against the customers own checking account. The customers account is not being charged $4,500, which is money they did not have. Those running the scheme on the other hand are in possession of $1,500 and they did not even have to pay the wire transfer fees required by western union.

During these tough economic times you have to watch out for schemes and scams because people sit at home and creatively come up with ways to help separate unsuspecting consumers from their money.

If you fall victim to this type of scam you stand to lose a significant amount of money which in all likelihood may never be recovered.