Quote from: phase on August 29, 2011, 06:39:34 PM

No, I was very surprised that it is even possible, and I remember explicitly reading that this is the way it works: An account is opened with forged/fake/stolen ID, stolen/fake cheques are deposited and these funds are then used to make wire transfers. There are banks that deposit cheque funds immediately with a later value date, and they always reserve the right to debit the account in the event that the cheque is fraudulent, indefinitely. If they can't find the actual account owner, it wouldn't surprise me that they will request the money back from the target bank.

Again: why would the scammer wire the funds anywhere, instead of just withdrawing it from the account in cash?

I am not talking about cashing the cheque - I am talking about depositing the cheque into the account, and then withdrawing the cash from the account. If the bank will allow a wire, they will allow to withdraw too. Funds on the account are either available or unavailable, they can't be just available for wire, but not available to withdraw - that wouldn't make any sense, and I never seen a situation like that. So the whole story doesn't make sense, as its much simpler for the scammer just to withdraw the cash from the account.

Anyway if forged cheques are deposited on the account, that's just the risk of the bank which carelessly accepted such deposit, and that bank will have to eat the loss - nobody else. Or maybe the employee who accepted the cheque. The bank might contact the bank receiving the wire to ask the receiver of the wire some questions, which might help him finding the person who deposited the cheque, buy they'd have to sue me and prove in court that I was the person who deposited the cheque or acted in cooperation with him with prior knowledge that I was willingly participating in a scam. That's what can happen. But money from the wire just disappearing from the account? Any bank which would do that could be sued by the account holder and I'm confident the customer would win, unless the bank has some proof I was knowingly involved in the scam, for example a video recording of me depositing the forged cheque at the other bank.