Mugu Bucks

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Posted: Tue Jun 19, 2007 7:48 pm

GordonBennett wrote:

What exactly is the bank doing when it takes its sweet time in 'clearing' a cheque Question

...

A check is a piece paper, nothing more. Your bank gives you money for that piece of paper on the assumption that the bank that issued the check will give the same amount to your bank.

Foreign checks are not that easy to verify, and it takes a while.

(Improvised clearance scheme:)
1. You give the check to your teller.
2. From there it goes to the local check guru.
3. From there it goes to the regional foreign transfer desk.
3a. It might have to go to the central bank department.
4. From there it goes to an agent (a bank) in the country where the issuing bank is located.
5. From there it goes to the central bank of the issuing bank.
6. From there it goes to their international department.
7. They check with the local bank where the original account is.

This (7.) is where it bounces if it's fake. This whole odyssey can take MONTHS.

The problem is that 99.7% of all checks clear just fine. Your bank wants to please its customers (and keep them), so they give you the money straight away. However, when the check bounces down the line, you have to give the money back, plus penalties, etc., etc.

Can't they just check by hitting a few keys on the computer? No.

I recently had a South African check in my business. My bank told me it would cost about EUR 50,-- to have the check cleared without actually cashing it. Since it was a normal business to business transaction like I've done thousands of times over the past twenty years, I took the risk of honoring it, i.e. sending out the ordered products. Everything turned out fine.

Posted: Tue Jun 19, 2007 9:58 pm

There are a few strange peculiarities and differences in banking law even between countries in Europe that an alert scammer/fraudster can play a lot of lucrative games with, but this is not the place to mention them.

Posted: Tue Jun 19, 2007 10:08 pm

GordonBennett wrote:

What exactly is the bank doing when it takes its sweet time in 'clearing' a cheque Question

...

When the bank is taking its sweet time to clear a cheque it is not doing very much. A couple of faxes at the most. EUR 50 is ridiculous.

We ship goods all over the world. As soon as a customer is outside the EC, we ask for an ordinary bank transfer. Cheap, fast, reliable.

Posted: Tue Jun 19, 2007 10:34 pm

Paying a cheque against a fax copy.

That opens up a whole new can of worms. First - the paying bank hold no valid legal authority to charge the account until the original is in their hands, by which time the funds may not be available to pay it. Detecting a forgery/counterfeit by fax is difficult, and any bank would add that as a caveat to any response for fate, thereby making it valueless.

It is never quite as easy as it may appear. Some types of cheque in one major country may be returned unpaid up to 6/7 years after issue, so you'll never get a final advice of clearance for them.

Master Baiter Joined: 17 May 2007 Posts: 105

A cheque from a cheque book, strictly speaking has no more legal legal standing than a cheque written by a tax rebel on the body of somewhat fregrant rotting shark in the UK many years ago. Of course anybody could/should refuse to accept such a cheque...... It'll never fit through bank machinery for a start. Just such a cheque was once featured in the Guinness book of records, and was submitted in the UK some years ago. The council in question actually accepted the payment for some reason. Their bank however declined to process it.

0sc4r

Posted: Thu Jun 21, 2007 3:17 am

Don wrote:

Mind Freak (who has been baiting scammers for decades)

Decades is a bit of a stretch but long enough to learn the hard way. Embarassed

I was almost bankrupt by a Russian Mugu! Evil or Very Mad

Actually I'm thankful that they burned me or I would have never found this illustrious sport of Scam Baiting. Wink

*** BANNED *** Joined: 19 Jul 2004 Posts: 140

Rael wrote:

Granted (and LJ was obviously joking), but couldn't that be circumvented by providing the check's sender with the address of the other mugu?

That makes a lot more sense, and runs no risk at all, at least none that I can see.

Posted: Fri Jun 22, 2007 5:12 am

@Barry: Fair enough, you're right. Lemmy correct myself.

CORRECT STATEMENT: Chequers don't bait like 419-ers, they are far more business-like and require more patience and finesse than I have.

And they're too much friggin' work! I get on the fake chequers, but I immediately just hand it all off to the RCMP or more recently aa419.org and let the experts handle it. On this site I read the words "only do it if you're comfortable and know what you're doing", which I take to heart.

(smooch smooch) Can you hear that, Shiver? Very Happy