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Nigerian Email Scam Victim Sues Bank, Loses Appeal
reidhellyer writes "From California Litigation Attorney Blog: 'While many victims of the so-called "Nigerian e-mail scam" would be too embarrassed to trumpet that fact, others end up infamous for their victimhood like the appellant in a published opinion of the California Court of Appeal in Riverside. In March 2009, Charles Peters received an email from someone purporting to be a citizen of Malaysia. The e-mail informed Peters that certain third parties in the United States and Canada owed the Malaysian money, but that “they can not transfer the funds to any bank account outside America continent due to their new company policy [sic].” He asked Peters to “assist me in receiving the funds and forward to me.” He offered to pay Peters 12 percent of the money. Peters agreed after apparently negotiating an increase of his fee to 15 percent.'"
At this point "Nigerian scam" refers to the technique and proceedings more than the origin.
If you read the article you will notice the victim tried to be cautious. He deposited the check into his bank account. He later verified with the bank that the check had cleared. Only then did he wire funds out of his account. Sometime later the bank revoked the checks claiming they had been altered. Since the victim did not have any money to cover the lost funds the bank attached a lien to his property.
It was actually the bank that lost money. The bank is trying to collect from the victim. The victim sued the bank to have the lien removed from his property. He lost, and lost again on appeal.
Frankly, I think it is the bank that should be held responsible here. They are the ones that verified the check was good, that it cleared, that the funds were in the victim's accounts, and they are the ones that allowed the funds to be wired out of the country. Ultimately, the bank will be held liable since they will never collect their $468,000. But they are all-to-happy to do whatever they can to ruin the victim's life in the process.
Why the hell should it take weeks?
Because it can take the account holder weeks to get their statement, see that someone has presented a fake check against their account, and cause the transaction to be dishonored. If this happens, the depositor who deposited the bad check doesn't have the right to the money, even if their account had been credited.
Being "totally clear" is not about moving money permanently; that is final settlement, when the bank says your check cleared they mean it has passed provisional settlement. Being totally clear is about agreeing to move money, and there being no issues.
Since it can take days before a review occurs or issues are reported, 10 seconds is not reasonable for settlement to occur. Even credit card transactions do not make provisional settlement so quickly, it takes 24 hours, and of course is not final until approximately 60 days, before that time the CC issuer has CHARGE-BACK rights, just as the bank paying a cheque has a CHARGE-BACK right.