Dodgy Bankers Drafts

[james_suckling]

Afternoon All

I'm an auditor for a bank, and I just thought I'd let you know about a scam that seems to be growing.

Be very cautious if you sell your car and accept a bankers draft. All drafts go through the clearing cycle, and therefore are normally available to draw on the fourth working day. However, fraudulent drafts are being paid in, and being 'late' returned, anytime up to a week later, which means your draft looks like it's available, but beware, it may not be. The banks are quite within their rights to debit your account at a later date should the draft be returned. Believe it or not, unpaid cheques and drafts are still returned using the post. If they get delayed your account could get debited at a later date even though the funds appear to be cleared.

A common myth is that drafts are guarenteed form of payment. If you accept one, the only way to be sure it's genuine, and to guarentee payment, is to call the drawing bank to establish if it is legitamate or not. The fraudulent drafts I've recently been made aware of are circulating in the Yorkshire area, and have been drawn on fake Natwest and Bank of Scotland accounts.

Hope this helps anyone thinking of accepting a draft. Make sure it's real!!

 

[dickys3]

Thanks for the advice!

 

[recomdos]

it's scary! if it's not fake money, bouncin checks it's another thing! well informed X50JAS!

 

[jojo]

Yes, very nice to know indeed, as I'm trying to sell a car. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/beerchug.gif

 

[james_suckling]

No worries! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/beerchug.gif

One guy yesterday lost over 10k. Poor guy, really felt for him. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/shocked2.gif

 

[DaveP]

So is the best way only to transfer money from one bank account to another at the same bank, so they can validate the funds are there and "clear" the payment immediately?

 

[james_suckling]

To be safe, in my opinion only accept,

1) Cash (but even then you've got to check that they're all real!!)
2) Draft (Call the branch that the draft is drawn on to ensure authenticity)
3) Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) or CHAPS payment (These take up to two hours to be received, dependent on how your bank processes the transaction, however, they are normally received within 30 mins. If the person coming to collect the car comes to your house, you could get them to ring their bank while you're there, and arrange the transfer. By the time you've gone over everything else, like the V5 etc, your bank should have received the funds. Give them a call and see before you let the car go. These payments are good, but they cost around £20.
4) Banking Automated Clearing System (BACS) (These can take anything up to 10 days to reach your bank, but again most high street banks take 4 days. These payments are normally free)

If you accept a cheque, and agree to wait for it to 'clear' before handing the car over, again, be cautious, as they can get returned later even if they appear available. If accepting a cheque, after 3.30 on the 3rd day of clearing, your bank can call the drawing bank to obtain 'fate' of the cheque. This will tell for definate if the cheque is to be paid or not. Once 'fate' has been given, the bank is obliged to honour the cheque. Although this may seem good, I'd always avoid accepting cheques, I've just seen too many people get stung!

At the end of the day, check the simple things, has the person buying your car given you a home number, is it listed in the phone book? Have you called them on it, or even better, found an excuse to call them at work? Is the address genuine? Have you seen their driving licence? Although this is optional information on the V5, if you ask for it when completing the sale, the address should match that given.

All the above is just my views on the matter, even if only a little of it helps, hopefully that will be one less person who get's ripped off. When I bought my car, the guy wanted to meet me at my bank, see me collect the draft, then take it to his bank to pay in before handing over the keys. Cant fault him really. I knew he was genuine, and he knew I was.

/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/beerchug.gif

 

[Anito]

Wow this is great information to know, thanks for the post.

 

[DavidR]

Second that, excellent information. Being innately a slightly paranoid person, I always wondered what the safest method of making a large payment was. Thanks /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif