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A Man Walks into a Bank

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Re: A Man Walks into a Bank

#131

Post by shin_lao »

mbateman wrote: post #93
shin_lao wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm sorry I don't understand the scam. How did they make the cashier believe the newspaper was actually cash?

ATMs don't scan a deposited check or cash. They wait for someone in the bank to open it and determine whether it is legit, then the account is credited. But after a while your account becomes "trustworthy" and any deposits are credited to the account before it is checked.

Ok, I didn't understand that part because the ATM here, in France, actually scan the notes.

You deposit the notes and the machine scans and count everything you deposited and gives you the number. If you agree, your account is credited.

I guess you could design fake notes that pass just the ATM...

Re: A Man Walks into a Bank

#132

Post by djloche »

YuriNiyazov wrote: post #118
veyron wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh I meant fees to the recipient, There's a law in the US that requires CC merchants to charge the same price as they would with cash payment (for most goods; some, like gas, have special exemptions), so when you pay X dollars by credit card the merchant receives less than X dollars.

Could you verify that it is indeed a law? I keep on hearing different reports about this: some say that it is a law, some say that it is not a law, just a clause in the contract that the merchant and the CC network agree to.

Mastercard & Visa v (Merchants) recently settled an antitrust lawsuit regarding this practice.

>http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-07-13/visa-mastercard-set...

>The agreement, which provides for a temporary reduction in rates for merchants and allows them to impose surcharges on customer purchases, follows a seven-year legal battle with U.S. retailers that accused the two largest payment networks of conspiring with banks to fix swipe fees, or interchange.

Re: A Man Walks into a Bank

#133

Post by [deleted] »

bluesnowmonkey wrote: post #129

It sounds more like he was hoping to get $95k than that he was playing a practical joke. As if banks have senses of humor. And after the bank and media noticed the situation, he was probably enjoying the attention in addition to holding out hope that he'd still get to keep the money somehow. It's sleazy how he tries to spin it as if he had some moral high ground.

[deleted]

Re: A Man Walks into a Bank

#134

Post by cdcarter »

shin_lao wrote: post #131
mbateman wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

ATMs don't scan a deposited check or cash. They wait for someone in the bank to open it and determine whether it is legit, then the account is credited. But after a while your account becomes "trustworthy" and any deposits are credited to the account before it is checked.

Ok, I didn't understand that part because the ATM here, in France, actually scan the notes. You deposit the notes and the machine scans and count everything you deposited and gives you the number. If you agree, your account is credited. I guess you could design fake notes that pass just the ATM...

Many newer ATMs do this, but there are still some old ones around.

Re: A Man Walks into a Bank

#135

Post by cdcarter »

spacemanaki wrote: post #105
sudonim wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How would that process work? Check gets deposited in ABC bank (issued by XYZ bank). ABC bank sends a scan of the check to XYZ bank. And XYZ bank has an employee whose job it is to look at every inbound check to make sure the signature matches? Or maybe they have computers to recognize the signature and compare them for similarities. If it's too different, then it's flagged and sent to an employee for further review?…

> Or maybe they have computers to recognize the signature and compare them for similarities. If it's too different, then it's flagged and sent to an employee for further review? Yeah, that'd be nice, and I think it's well within the grasp of the big banks to deploy some image recognition software to do this, and yet I'm fairly certain they do not. Anecdata to follow... I recently had a blank check stolen from me and…

Bill-pay features are a pretty good innovation, I'd say.

Re: A Man Walks into a Bank

#136

Post by larrys »

I question this story actually.

Checking the newspapers from that era I find several stories that were all based on the same AP wire story. Here is one (or search news.google.com for others)

http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=2UlWAAAAIBAJ&sjid=G...

http://www.nytimes.com/1995/10/04/us/fake-check-story-ending...

A few things about this.

1) From what can find there is no attempt to verify anything with any bank. I understand that banks aren't going to want to trot out that this happened. But at the very least good reporting (this was also in the NY Times) would require verifying that it actually happened, even with a "no comment" from the bank or the attorney.

2) The type of career he decided to pursue. He wrote a book about "Make College Easier, Beat the System and Get a very cool job".

3) The fake check has a micr on the bottom for the amount. But you don't get cancelled checks with micr, the person who wrote the check does. The photo byline clearly says "Patrick Combs's fake cheque, which arrived as junk mail"

4) The micr says "95,093.55" and the check is for 95,093.35.

5) I haven't checked the routing number but there is no mention of the bank that the check was drawn on.

Re: A Man Walks into a Bank

#137

Post by cdcarter »

theorique wrote: post #66
veyron wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Checks are still useful because most online transfer mechanisms cost money. For example, my bank recently started charging for ACH transfers, and wires are always expensive.

Yeah, exactly. I was going to try some new method (PopMoney?) to pay my roommate for rent and utilities, and then I noticed it cost $1 per transaction. Back to paper checks (= free). It's not the fact that it costs something - a dollar is no big deal - it's the fact that the alternative is free.

Does your bank offer an online bill-pay system? Mine does for free, and if they can't deliver the money electronically they cut and mail a check for you.

Re: A Man Walks into a Bank

#138

Post by spacemanaki »

cdcarter wrote: post #135
spacemanaki wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Or maybe they have computers to recognize the signature and compare them for similarities. If it's too different, then it's flagged and sent to an employee for further review? Yeah, that'd be nice, and I think it's well within the grasp of the big banks to deploy some image recognition software to do this, and yet I'm fairly certain they do not. Anecdata to follow... I recently had a blank check stolen from me and…

Bill-pay features are a pretty good innovation, I'd say.

Fair enough I suppose, and I'd add the rest of online banking is a big improvement too.

The fact that checks are not anywhere near as secure as I would want (or apparently the bank's own tellers would want) just irks me, since they're much more convenient than bill-pay, which takes 5 business days to process while handing a check to my landlord takes less than 1.

Re: A Man Walks into a Bank

#139

Post by jarek »

duaneb wrote: post #116
derda wrote: post #45

It amazes me everytime, that in the US day-to-day banking still consists mostly of writing, sending and cashing cheques. In germany (I dont know about the rest of Europe, but I guess the situation is similar), cheques are virtually non existent. You can still get and cash them, but you will get weird looks from the person behind the bank counter, most of the time there will be a hefty fee associated with it(I once ca…

It's free, personal money transfer that you can cancel if someone steals. What's not to like?

The multiple-day clearing process? The need to transfer a physical item to transfer a couple of numbers?

Re: A Man Walks into a Bank

#140

Post by icebraining »

jarek wrote: post #125
Splines wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's too bad there isn't some sort of reconfigurable QR code stamp thing that you can use to sign something. Say, for example, you enter in the payee, amount and date, it digitally signs it with your private key from your bank, creates a QR code with the data and moves tiny little stamp pins up/down and you press it onto the paper.

If you're going through that much technological effort, why still use paper cheques ?

Because it doesn't require the other person to use anything technological.
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