What is an honest person to do?

Check from a scammer bounces victim into jail
David Lazarus
Wednesday, August 30, 2006

San Francisco resident Matthew Shinnick tried to sell a pair of mountain bikes on Craigslist late last year. He attracted a buyer, received a check in the mail — and ended up handcuffed by police in a downtown Bank of America branch and jailed for almost 12 hours.

First, follow the link above and read the story. Then, answer me one question: How do you verify that a check is good other than going into the bank and asking? Calling the person or company on the check does you no good if someone printed bogus checks with a stolen account number on it. I was passed a bad check a couple of years ago, and Mel deposited it into her back account. I shudder to think what would have happened if BofA had pressed charges against Mel for depositing that check for me!

-Chris

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