A Man Walks into a Bank • Hacker News Board

Re: A Man Walks into a Bank

#91

Post by mrweasel » Mon, Aug 06, 2012, 3:19 PM UTC

veyron wrote: post #89

mrweasel wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Credit card fees aren't onerous, not here in Denmark at least, I think Finland has a similar deal. Credit cards are issued by your bank, you pay one yearly fee, 175DKK around 30USD. More often than not the bank will give you a VISA debit card for free, or a Master Card with 30.000DKK limit, no interest if you pay the debt of each month (The bank will do the transfer from your account for free, assuming that you have…

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.

Oh yes, you're right on that part. Denmark have a "Dankort" a national debit card, you can't charge a fee on that, but you could on other cards, but most stores don't.

Re: A Man Walks into a Bank

#92

Post by shin_lao » Mon, Aug 06, 2012, 3:20 PM UTC

zalew wrote: post #73

Heh, a check in 1995 you say. Ok, hear this. This year 2 guys here in Warsaw put a bag full of newspaper into a cash deposit and walked away with 1.5 million Euro on their account. By 'their' account I mean an account set up on a fake or some bum who gave them their ID for a few hundred. Supposedly they had an insider who thought them how to build trust on the account, so after some time the deposits are cashed in be…

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

Re: A Man Walks into a Bank

#93

Post by mbateman » Mon, Aug 06, 2012, 3:27 PM UTC

shin_lao wrote: post #92

zalew wrote: post #73

Heh, a check in 1995 you say. Ok, hear this. This year 2 guys here in Warsaw put a bag full of newspaper into a cash deposit and walked away with 1.5 million Euro on their account. By 'their' account I mean an account set up on a fake or some bum who gave them their ID for a few hundred. Supposedly they had an insider who thought them how to build trust on the account, so after some time the deposits are cashed in be…

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.

Re: A Man Walks into a Bank

#94

Post by mbetter » Mon, Aug 06, 2012, 3:27 PM UTC

wrath wrote: post #7

Am I missing something here? The transit, bank and account number on the check must all be fake (or I would hope that this get-rick-quick company didn't actually send their real bank information!). So whether or not the check has non-negotiable printed on it is a mute point. The check cannot be routed anywhere and would have been flagged immediately. This is not the good ol' days of bank fraud, ala Catch Me If You Ca…

^moot

Re: A Man Walks into a Bank

#95

Post by redwood » Mon, Aug 06, 2012, 3:27 PM UTC

portman wrote: post #32

I remember this story flooding the Internet in 1995. I'm confused why the author is doing a "one-man comedic show" 17 years later.

Has it been 17 years since 1995? OH MY

Re: A Man Walks into a Bank

#96

Post by gst » Mon, Aug 06, 2012, 3:37 PM UTC

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…

The Zahlschein that is still very common in Germany isn't really any more modern than a check.

Re: A Man Walks into a Bank

#97

Post by ahi » Mon, Aug 06, 2012, 3:41 PM UTC

kitsune_ wrote: post #37

I live in continental Europe, can someone please explain the American cheque system to me? Is it still widely used? We have giro and SEPA transfers. If I want to transfer money to someone, I simply order my bank to withdraw said amount from my account and transfer it to the destination account. I could even do this without having a banking account. Anybody could walk to a post office or bank and pay into someone's ba…

Checks are widely used for rent, payroll when direct deposit is not setup, and by the old person in front of you at the grocery store checkout when you're in a rush. In the US, checks are basically a paper method to "order my bank to withdraw said amount from my account and transfer it to the destination account." The laws regarding what makes a valid check are (or at least were) rather loose. Someone once paid his taxes by writing a check on the side of a pig and delivering it to the IRS.

Re: A Man Walks into a Bank

#98

Post by mattbanner » Mon, Aug 06, 2012, 3:42 PM UTC

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.

Here is few more updates: http://goo.gl/7rw7o

Re: A Man Walks into a Bank

#99

Post by aoprisan » Mon, Aug 06, 2012, 3:49 PM UTC

jj_aa wrote: post #14

DeepDuh wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"So... WHAT HAPPENED?" If you want to know what happens next, order our DVD now!

IIRC from this guy's site, before it was a show, he had a stand-off with the bank for a while before learning that this check was holding up a merger between his bank and another company, so the whole executive suite was freaking out. Eventually he gave the check back with no repercussions and some token like a letter of apology.

he didn't apologize, the bank did. that was the whole point of him cashing $95k and holding it until the bank acknowledged that they screwed up.

Re: A Man Walks into a Bank

#100

Post by fatbird » Mon, Aug 06, 2012, 3:55 PM UTC

wrath wrote: post #7

Am I missing something here? The transit, bank and account number on the check must all be fake (or I would hope that this get-rick-quick company didn't actually send their real bank information!). So whether or not the check has non-negotiable printed on it is a mute point. The check cannot be routed anywhere and would have been flagged immediately. This is not the good ol' days of bank fraud, ala Catch Me If You Ca…

He knowingly deposited a fake check, expecting that the exact clearance mechanisms you mention would catch it, and the deposit rejected. As evidence that he wasn't committing fraud, he didn't endorse the check, so no intent to commit fraud.

He only got stubborn about it after 1) the bank far exceeded the deadlines for dishonoring the check, rendering the money legally his, and 2) when they tried to retrieve the money, they strongarmed him with security officers rather than approaching him as an adult.

What's missing from the FT version is that the initial freezing of all his accounts caused him some hardship and scared his mother, and once he spoke to the bank security officer about this and his original intent, and that he knew the law surrounding this, the bank backed off, unfroze his accounts, and started dealing with him with much more civility.