Scammed Out Of Laptop By Old Cheque :(

nick74

bryanb wrote: »

Agreed but the OP's problem involves what may be a cheque on a closed account supported by a card which may have applied to a different account. The question was how to check.
However someone has already pointed out that the cheque was outside the scope of a guarantee card (£900) so we're probably talking to ourselves now. But it's useful to know the limitations of the systems used by various banks.

There's a PDF of the APACS conditions of use of cheque guarantee card scheme here;
http://www.apacs.org.uk/payment_options/documents/cheque_card.pdf

The requirement seems to be that the sort code matches and that's if it shows a sort code at all, which many don't. In essence it appears that a cheque guarantee facility is specific to a person's relationship with a bank, or branch of a bank, rather than to an account.

Richard019

GeorgeUK wrote: »

Edit: If you have a cheque, you will have the branch sort code so may know the area he lives in if it is a local branch.

If you have a cheque then you might have the branch address printed on it. (Both my English and Scottish based NatWest accounts do)

twirlypinky

I would definitelly pay it in. Banks don't really check them.

I went into my bank for a bankers draft in November, (they do check these) and was told my signature didn't match what they had on file. It turned out that when I got married 5 YEARS AGO they didn't action my change of signature. So for 5 years I've been writing out cheques and signing them in what they say is the wrong signature and no one has noticed. What a bunch of muppets.

Also, my birthday is in January and my grandma has never failed to send a cheque with the wrong year written on, it takes her until about March to realise it's changed, and I've never had a cheque from her not accepted, even though in theory they're all a year out of date.

Paul_Herring

twirlypinky wrote: »

I would definitelly pay it in. Banks don't really check them.

Thing is, if the person writing the cheque deliberately put a date 20 months in the past, should you really have an expectation that the account has any money in it? Or that it even still exists? (By all means try it, but I wouldn't hold much hope of it not bouncing anyway.)

twirlypinky

Well that's true. It's a toughie certainly, but i think I'd try to pay it in - what have you got to lose at this stage?

Can you find out where the guy lives from his name (google him)?

MrsTinks

I'd post it off to the bank... you never know right?

Otherwise you contact the police again and give them as much details as possible and make sure it's reported as fraud...

The police DO take this stuff seriously - but if they are busy and have violent crimes taking most fo their time then it will be a while before things like fraudulent cheques make it to their "to do today" list As it should be really...

I guess lesson learnt is to NEVER accept cheques for items of high value - if you do only hand over the goods once the cheque has cleared!

Murtle

a cheque guarantee card only guarantees up to a certain amount, not very often £900. good luck

M_Thomson

I thought that a cheque guarantee card is only valid for retailers and not for transactions between private individuals?

jonesMUFCforever

I also have to ask in today's market who on earth pays £900 for an OLD laptop - you could get two decent NEW ones for that kind of money.

ChloeRadshaw

jonesMUFCforever wrote: »

I also have to ask in today's market who on earth pays £900 for an OLD laptop - you could get two decent NEW ones for that kind of money.

This was bought my me two years ago for 2000 pounds so the guy got a good deal