Slashdot Mirror
US Law Firms Targeted By Cyberscams
Hugh Pickens writes "The San Francisco Chronicle reports that last year a Long Beach law firm received an e-mail from a Hong Kong businessman seeking help collecting debts from American customers. After a month of signing paperwork and exchanging telephone calls, the attorney received word that one debtor had sent a $200,000 cashier's check to pay off his balance. The attorney deposited it in his firm's account, subtracted his $10,000 fee and wired the remaining $190,000 to his Hong Kong client. Then the attorney's bank called and told him the $200,000 check had bounced. 'They send me a nice, big, worthless check,' says the attorney. In this case, the bank was able to prevent the wire transfer from reaching its destination, but attorneys say they are on the receiving end of sophisticated scams with increasing frequency that include attacks to steal client data that can be sold or used to learn the details of future litigation."
There is still a substantial impact from banks being allowed to unwind a transaction at their leisure. In the day and age when people can download a newly released movie from halfway around the world and have it on a DVD before it hits the store shelves (and occasionally before it even hits a public theater screen), there is no good excuse for not being able to say once and for all if a check is good or not within 24 hours.
There is no reason to accommodate the long gone need to send checks to the main branch via stagecoach and hear back a week or two later in the modern age. Banks should be required to verify and reserve the funds within a very short time and should at that point be unable to pull it back. If they are unwilling to join us here in the 21st century, let them assume the risks. So far, the only 19th century trappings they have cast off is their air of respectability and their drive to avoid any behavior that even looks like it might be improper. By charging more and more for less and less, they are becoming a big drag on the economy (which they have recently wrecked with little consequence to themselves).