Bank wire question....

[AFSC]

Has anyone ever heard of the following scenario........

A client of ours recently purchased content direct from an "alleged" content provider in Florida.

There were 2 transactions, first a cashiers check was sent for $23,000 for HD scenes and then immediately thereafter a wire was sent for $17,000 for additional SD scenes.

The "provider" first says "There's an 11 day hold on the cashiers check from Bank of America" (never heard of a cashiers check taking so long)

Now keep in mind this all happened on MAY 6. So finally after a month of delays, the provider finally says on JUNE 9th.... "we were just notified by our bank that our account is frozen because the wire sent by you is suspicious and suspected fraud" .... The sending bank (BofA) knows nothing about any problems, and has processed over 1,000 wires for the company.

So, has anyone ever heard of a bank deciding a wire looks suspicious after having the wire for 4 weeks?

[JFK]

Interesting , 2 bank wire questions on the same day

[sperbonzo]

Any wire larger than $10k is noted, filed and reported to the feds. It is possible that a freeze was put on the accounts if the feds decided (sometimes seemingly at random), that they wanted to know more about it.

That being said, the wire would have cleared the first day, since it was US bank to US bank. So they had the money, and had access to it, for at least 3 weeks. If the wire was frozen and being held at the time it was sent, then they would have known about it within 2 days for sure. Unless they never interact with that bank account....


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[sperbonzo]

Also, regarding the cashiers check. Although banks normally allow you access to funds either that day or the next day on a cashiers check, it actually can takes the check up to 3 or 4 weeks to clear the system. If the check comes back as fraud, and you have taken out the cash, then you are on the hook for that money. Therefore it is up to the bank as to how long they wish to hold the check prior to releasing funds. If the guy who you sent the check to has had a history with his bank of depositing bad checks, then they may have instituted this hold to cover their increased risk.


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