Consumer complaint received 2017-06-02
Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service — Traveler's check or cashier's check
Issue: Fraud or scam — 
Company: JPMORGAN CHASE & CO. (NY)

Hello, I was just a victim of a XXXX scam. We just moved out of our apartment in XXXX on Monday XX/XX/XXXX and around two weeks beforehand we posted our set of couches on XXXX for {$240.00}. A person named XXXX XXXX responded to the post and said that he would like to purchase the couches. He then added that he wanted to send us a check in the mail to pay for the couches ahead of time. He sent us a cashier 's check in the mail for {$1700.00}. This was clearly strange that he sending so much extra, but he said the extra amount was supposed to be paid in cash to movers the he ordered at the time of pick up. I asked him why he needed to pay so much extra for the movers if the couches only cost {$240.00} and he said because they were moving a lot of stuff in XXXX for him but I was supposed to pay them for the whole move. I thought this was strange, but I did n't really think much about it because he gave me a cashier 's check which is supposed to be impossible to bounce. I was therefore not worried about losing any of this money. Then after I deposited the cashier 's check into my account, he told me that the movers no longer accept cash on delivery because they there were some issues with the movers mishandling the cash. He therefore said that he wanted me to transfer the funds directly to the movers by a XXXX. At this point, I was getting frustrated and I told him that I did n't want to do it, to which he responded that he would let me keep an extra {$80.00} for the inconvenience. Even though this all felt sketchy, I was n't worried because I thought that a cashier 's check was as secure as cash and the money was guaranteed. I wired {$1400.00} to the name " XXXX XXXX '' in XXXX Texas with a zip code of XXXX. After I told him that I wired the money he said he would contact me when the movers would come. After that text he never responded to my future texts and the movers never came. 6 days after I deposited the check, I checked my account and saw that the check was rescinded because it was " altered/fictitious ''. ( deposited the check on Thursday, XX/XX/XXXX and it was n't rescinded until Wednesday, XX/XX/XXXX ). I do n't understand how it took so long for my bank, chase, to recognize that this was a fraudulent check. With today 's image recognition technology, a bank should be able to detect a fraudulent of altered check instantaneously and if it 's not sure atleast send me a warning or place a hold on the check while they investigate it. I called chase to complain about it and they wo n't do anything. I am held completely responsible. As a consumer, this makes me feel extremely vulnerable because I now have no confidence that a cashier 's check I receive is legitimate. I think that my bank should take responsibility for this and start implementing software to detect fraudulent checks. I ca n't visually tell if a cashier 's check is fake and I did n't even know that it was possible for a cashier 's check to be fake. At the very least, banks need to inform consumers that there is a risk of the check being fake when we deposit it. The bank that issued the check is called " XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX ''.