[HN Gopher] His Life Savings Were Mailed to Him by Paper Check. ...
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His Life Savings Were Mailed to Him by Paper Check. Now, It's Gone
Author : littlexsparkee
Score : 13 points
Date : 2025-05-18 21:40 UTC (1 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.nytimes.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.nytimes.com)
| littlexsparkee wrote:
| https://archive.ph/rh76h
| ReptileMan wrote:
| >In a court filing, it tried to wipe its hands of the matter,
| claiming that it had no fiduciary responsibility to Mr. Handy and
| that he had taken possession of the checks before the thief stole
| them.
|
| Doesn't looks as clear cut as the title makes it to be.
| josephcsible wrote:
| What's the point of having checks at all instead of just mailing
| cash, if stolen checks can be fraudulently cashed with no
| recourse?
| jopsen wrote:
| I don't understand checks, but isn't it just paper that allows
| transfer of money to the person the check is addressed?
|
| If so, what does it matter that someone else cashed it? Such
| transaction is unauthorized, it's a matter between the bank and
| the thief, and doesn't concern Mr. Handy.
|
| What concerns Mr. Handy is Paychex refusing to honor the check.
| Presumably they are claiming he authorized transfer of money to
| a person that neither Paychex or Mr. Handy can identify.
|
| Probably PayChex has a weak claim there :)
|
| Again, I don't fully understand checks -- but my impression is
| that because a check is (often) addressed to a person, they are
| actually pretty safe. I'm assuming fraud is always the
| responsibility of the bank that failed to verify addressed
| person. Hence, why cashing a 100k check probably isn't easy to
| do -- stealing to check is probably the easy part. Cashing it
| without getting caught is the impressive part.
|
| That said: In practice, I'd never want to use a check.
| Saris wrote:
| Yeah it should be the fault of the bank that didn't check
| things before cashing it.
| toomuchtodo wrote:
| There are various attempts to phase checks out, and switch to
| FedNow and RTP instant payment rails. Unfortunately, there is
| no legislation requiring a deadline to phase out paper
| instruments such as checks. Call your Congressional rep. The
| infra already exists, anyone dragging their feet has limited
| incentive to hurry up.
| patricklorio wrote:
| So he received the checks and mailed them to his bank but they
| were intercepted in the second leg and cashed out. Sounds like
| the fault is with the banks that cashed out the checks without
| adequate verification.
| theandrewbailey wrote:
| But how will small mom and pop banks be able to afford shiny
| towers downtown if they have to know every single customer? \s
| fancyfredbot wrote:
| How often is this happening? If criminals are aware that 401k
| transfers are done using cheques in the post, and some of the
| addresses these are typically sent to, then I'm expecting this to
| be a very common type of fraud. Yet the practice of 401k cheques
| in the mail continues? Weird.
| shusaku wrote:
| > Without knowing the type, nobody can tell the I.R.S. later on
| what taxes to collect, if any, or tell the participant what he or
| she may owe. And guess what. With paper checks, you can just put
| words on them that help explain or signal what kind of account
| the money came from and where it's supposed to end up.
|
| Oh the irony.
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