Clark asks his listeners to do business elsewhere and pull their money out of BOFA. 17 Million dollars has been pulled out so far. This gentleman sold two mountain bikes on Craigslist to an unknown person and tried to cash a check for $2,000 in New York city and was arrested for felony fraud. He was tossed in jail, strip searched and locked in a small cell with drug dealers and users till 11:30 PM that night when his dad bailed him out for $4500, 10% of the $45,000 bond. He says he was never read his rights. The DA drooped the charges the next day. After 7 month he had the record of the arrests removed in superior court. He asked BOFA to pay his $14,000 in legal fees and they refused. Clark offered to pay half if they paid half and they refused this offer as well. In the California Supreme Court case, Hagberg vs. California Federal Bank (2004) a woman tried to cash a real check and was arrested under suspicion of fraud. She sued and lost. In general cashing checks is a bad thing to do. Just deposit them and if you get a check that might be fraudulent deposit in via the ATM machine. Because of check 21 and color laser printers paper hanging is a growing crime these days. Itâ??s best not to take checks from people you donâ??t know. "How the Bank of America blunder went down By now, youâ??ve probably heard the story of the San Francisco man who was arrested and jailed when he tried to verify the validity of a check at Bank of America branch. Clark found out about this story and talked with the man, Matthew Shinnick, who has spent about $14,000 in legal fees to clear his name. It all started when Shinnick posted two bicycles for sale on Cragislist and received a check from a man for more than the cost of the bicycles. He went into his bank to see if the check was legitimate and verify that there was money in the personâ??s account. He was told it was a valid account and so he cashed the check. At that point, BOA employees called the police and Shinnick was arrested on fraud charges because the check was actually a phony. He had no idea that the real criminal had used the name of a legitimate company to fake a check. So, Matthew sat in the bank branch for hours while police figured out what to do and then spent the night in jail. Once he got out, he wanted to clear his name legally so the arrest would not come back to haunt him. He had to hire attorneys to do this and it cost him nearly $14,000. He then went to Bank of America and asked that the bank cover his fees because it was the bankâ??s error. But so far BOA has refused. This kind of treatment sends the message that banks only care about their bottom line and nothing about their customers. It's unacceptable and it's time to fight back." http://clarkhoward.com/shownotes/2006/09/21/ Check from a scammer bounces victim into jail http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/08/30/BUGTGKRHSF1.DTL BOFA meter of withdraws: http://clarkhoward.com/topics/boa_meter.html http://clarkhoward.com
No Surprises Here BOA is a pathetic JOKE. I closed my account with them back in August, fed UP with six years of arrorgance and refusal to accept accountability for their own mistakes. The final straw came when they began refusing to cash my payroll checks...even though my account was in good standing. The horror story described by the OP is just the tip of the iceberg. The complaints against this bank are rampant and if you want to see 500 more of them, go to badbusinessbureau.com.
You take a check, you take the risk that goes along with it. He wanted to walk out the door with cash, with BofA taking all the risk. He should have just deposited in his own account and sat on it for a month to see if it was good. That said, I do business elsewhere. Check fraud is currently rampant, particularly involving sales via internet with fraudulent checks used for payment. On a related topic, see this: http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2006/10/qchex.htm "For Release: October 2, 2006 Court Halts Illegal Operations of Online Check Processing Firm Qchex, an Internet-based check creation and delivery service, has agreed to a temporary restraining order to halt its unfair business practices. In a complaint filed in U.S. District Court, the Federal Trade Commission charged that Qchex creates and sends checks drawn on any bank account identified by a Qchex customer without verifying that the customer has authority to write checks drawn on that account. As a result, con artists have used the Qchex service to draw checks on bank accounts that belong to others. According to the FTC, Qchex’s practices have harmed both innocent account holders whose bank accounts have been debited, and individuals and businesses who received fraudulent Qchex checks as payment for goods and services. The agency alleges the practices violate federal law, and has asked the court to order a permanent halt to the illegal operation, and to order the defendants to give up their ill-gotten gains. ..."
