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CTV.ca News Staff
Mike Fitzpatrick, from Vancouver, British Columbia was another
victim of check fraud - and of delayed cheque-clearing by banks.
Like many of us, Fitzpatrick posted his resume online. A
supposed British investor, James Moon, offered him work.
All Fitzpatrick had to do was set up a bank account in
Vancouver to pay a client of Moon's, in China - and Moon would
send Fitzpatrick cheques to cover the amounts.
Fitzpatrick received the checks from Moon, deposited them and
waited until his bank told him they were "clear." Then
he sent $26,000 to the customer in China. To his horror,
Fitzpatrick discovered months later that those cheques were in
fact fake and that HE was on the hook for the money.
"To be honest with you I was skeptical about the whole
thing right up until the bank notified me that the cheque had
cleared because I figured it if wasn't a real cheque then there's
no way the bank would have cleared it," Fitzpatrick said.
W-FIVE confronted Mike Fitzpatrick's bank, the Royal Bank,
about the lag time banks take to clear cheques.
Jay Stark, the Bank's Vice-President of the fraud department,
told W-FIVE that "the customer remains responsible" even
if the bank has given the cheque clearance. Stark also said the
law allows a bank to come after a customer, up to six years later,
for a bad cheque.
Stark promised to take up the issue of cheque clearance with
the Canadian Banks Association (CBA) and the Canadian Payment
Association (CPA).
However, any improvements to bank cheque-clearing systems will
probably come too late for Fitzpatrick who has lost his car, his
house and his marriage.
"I was absolutely crushed. First of all, I felt stupid
because I had been sucked in by these con men. And then I just
panicked, I had no idea what I was going to do, the bank told me I
was on the hook for this huge amount of money which obviously I
couldn't repay. I just didn't know what to do. I felt
helpless," Fitzpatrick said.
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