Are banks allowed to release funds to your account from a cashiers check without knowing if its good first?

Question

me and my wife got scammed on craigslist trying to sell one of our atv's.it was the old ill mail you a check for more than the amount and have you wire it a couple places scam.( and i fell for it), but im actually thinking my bank is in the wrong.

The buyer sent me a cashiers check, i deposited the check into my bank to make sure it would clear,,my bank cleared it to my account in one day,( i deposited the check because i didnt have enough in the bank to cash it).,so after the bank made the funds available to me in one day ,i thought the check is good, and i will send the money where the buyer wants me too. after i sent the funds where the buyer wanted me to ,he cancelled the buy and told me to send the rest in another place ,,i knew something wasnt right but i did what he said because he had my address and i feared for my son.

So after the bank cleared the cashiers check to me and i sent the money, i thought everything was over ,except for a few days later my bank account was -$4,000 ( cashiers check was for $4,800). the cashiers check was a counterfit, the banks says its my responsiblility to pay them back the $4,000 my account was negative.i dont think this is right! it was a cashiers check i gave them,, i deposited the check, not cashed it! i think the bank should have verified funds before they made the money available to me.(escpecially since it was a cashiers check).thats what we have our money in banks for ,right? to protect us ,they said they have noway of telling the check was a fake( but they did 7days after making the funds available to me).i think the bank is in the wrong and i need advice! if you think you can help me please let me know! we are running into dead ends.

thank you!

Answer 1

Actually banks are REQUIRED to make funds available within several business days.  It is sadly the consumer's responsibility to verify a check before depositing, or wait until the funds are actually transferred to the cashing institution, not just 'cleared."  

You are not alone in falling for this increasingly common scam.  There is a great deal of information on various advance fee frauds and counterfeit check scams available on the web site of the Comptroller of the Currency Administrator of National Banks site, you can see it all here:

http://www.occ.treas.gov/AntiFraudConsum...

Answer 2

Banks release funds in a set number of days depending on the type of check (cashiers check, government check, personal check, etc.) and whether it is drawn on a local bank or not.  Unless the bank has a reason to believe the check is not good the money is usually available to you before the bank finds out that it has not been paid.  Unfortunately your situation is a common scam.  Your ATV has probably been striped for parts or resold with no trace to the person you dealt with.  You have no recourse against the bank.

Answer 3

According to Reg CC, as long as the cashier's check was made payable to you and placed in your account, the bank MUST make those funds available the next business day, unless they have reason to believe it was a bad, counterfiet or stolen check.  It takes an average of 3 to 5 business days for checks to clear.    Just because the check shows as cleared in your account, does not mean that the bank knows right that moment if the check is good or bad.  It just shows that the bank is following the Reg CC regulations and allowing you to have access to those funds.

Your bank did nothing but follow the regulations.  If you had suspicions about the check, you should have said so and requested that a hold be placed for that amount or not used the funds until the bank could tell you for sure that the check had not come back as bad.  You are responsible for paying back the money to your bank.

Read the second paragraph of the link I posted.