A Belmont woman says the $1,000 check she wrote to her mechanic was cashed twice, months apart. Here's how the bank allowed it to happen.
BELMONT, N.C. — A Gaston County woman says she wrote a $1,000 check that was cashed twice, raising concerns of potential fraud thanks to technology that's supposed to make banking easier.
Technology makes so many things easier these days, including banking, which can be done on your smartphone. Depositing a check is as simple as snapping a photo of the check and using remote deposit capture. Payees are supposed to destroy the hard copy of the check after it's processed, but some still hold onto it and deposit it again, sometimes months later.
In the banking world, this is known as "double presentment," which can be accidental or intentional. That's exactly what Lauren Hibberd told WCNC Charlotte happened to her. For editorial transparency, Hibberd's husband is an employee at WCNC Charlotte.
"We thought that our mechanic had actually just forgotten to cash the check. He found and then six months later, would deposit it," Hibberd said. "I told my husband, 'I think I remember that check clearing.' So, I went back through our previous statements, and sure enough, it had cleared."
Because the check was deposited twice, Hibberd’s account was out $2,000. They immediately contacted Bank of America and confirmed the check was cashed twice.
After conducting its own investigation, Bank of America put the money back in the account for the second check deposit.
“They did say that things like this have happened before,” Hibberd said. “That's probably the biggest shock is, it wasn't a shock to them."
WCNC Charlotte has repeatedly reached out to Bank of America over the last three weeks and hasn't received a response.
Bob Sullivan, a consumer expert and regular contributor for CNBC, said banks have millions of accounts to look at and use algorithms to find obvious acts of fraud.
"They set those thresholds is really what the problem is," Sullivan said. "If they set them too low, then they're going to be calling you all the time and bothering you with so many complaints. So, they have this magic pixie dust where they let some fraud get through, but not so much that it hurts them. They don't try to stop too much fraud, because if they did, there'd be too many false positives. It was something like two identical $1,000 checks. In this case, the bank's threshold was set high enough that they let that go through instead of flagging that as an obvious scam."
Sullivan added it’s a good idea to go over your bank statements regularly and see that nothing is out of the ordinary. You could become a victim of double presentment even if you don’t use mobile banking.
To make sure you don’t do this to someone else if you use remote deposit capture, Sullivan suggested ripping a corner off the check. That way, you’ll know you already put it in your account.
In the meantime, Hibberd said she’ll think twice before writing another check.
"Don't just assume that because it's a big bank things like this can't happen," she said. "We were kind of shocked it did happen."
WCNC Charlotte is always asking "where's the money?" If you need help, reach out to WCNC Charlotte by emailingmoney@wcnc.com.
