Someone Cashed Out Our Check

[Arigato3]

Our insurance company send a check to wrong address and it was cashed out by someone else. The company refused to issue another check saying "There are no fund any more. We are not the one who cashed it out". They suggested me to call the bank they used for this check. The bank told me have the insurance company contact them. I called back the insurance company but they kept saying they cannot do anything with this check. What should we do?? I know they didn't take the money but they are the one who sent it to wrong address. They said that our address wasn't updated in their system. Oddly, we have been receiving other documents from them around the time. Anyways, none of them is our issue. We just need our money back. Whom we need to talk to? please advise.

[murraymints]

I tend to agree that your insurance company are to blame and should re-issue..however I think you'd best take this matter for proper legal advice

[emmie]

if you are based here, suggest you contact aa local Citizens advice Bureau for legal advice.

[Electrochem]

Judging by the wording of you post, I assume you don't live in the UK. I would suggest getting advice from the country you are in, as most people on here will have very limited knowledge of foreign law. Hope you have some success.

[Bobbisox1]

Banks here have a fraud procedure , don’t they have that where you are at?

[davebro]

I presume the check was made out in your name & not to cash so the person who stole it (even though it was sent to wrong address) must have impersonated you at the bank. You should inform the police pronto.

You say the insurer had not updated your address so the check was sent to somewhere you once lived? Do you know who lives there now? Inform the police of that address and the names of the residents if you know them.

[Arigato3]

Thanks for all of your reply. We live in U.S. Bank needs to be contacted by the account holder which is insurance company in case to start any investigation.
We are renting this old house so our tenant is living in. The insurance company gave us a copy of the signed check. The signature does not look like his. Of course he can fake it... I feel like it’s pretty easy to get money back once the bank started investigating. Since his name isn’t on the check.

[emmie]

good luck whatever happens.

[Peter Pedant]

First of all, which country is this?
The casher is clearly guilty of fraud under the Fraud Act and you should complain to the police

You should follow the complaints procedure of the issuing bank and say that the results of fraud against them, is being carried by yourself which is clearly unfair considering you had no control over this

I suspect there are other interesting details we havnt yet been told

[emmie]

Poster has said he is in the USA, PP

[Peter Pedant]

actually you are letting a room in the house you are in. Makes a difference. You are landlord and not tenant.

I thought there may be other well er juicy detaills such as another person in the house has intervened and the cheque was correctly delivered.

the signature of the payee ( you ) is now not required in the UK ( endorsing went out in 1962) and I have to say I have no idea of the law regarding this ( whether there is a duty to make sure of the identity of the payee )

[bobbinwales]

A few things puzzle me.
1) You say "We are renting this old house so our tenant is living in". Do you mean the tenant is living in your previous address which your still owning?
2) If you had told the insurer of you new address then have they said why they used the old one?
3) In the US can people draw cash from a cheque (check) at a bank and if so would they of needed some ID so did he use some of your ID papers?

[Peter Pedant]

oh the other thing is - - which account did it go into?
It sounds as tho it was processed thro a cashing system.

In my family when this happened to my grandmother, it was straightforward, the bank clerk who cashed it (!) went to prison. Relied on "no no you silly old woman there is no cheque". iit didnt work

[Peter Pedant]

subletting bobbin

there are more details to come out

[bobbinwales]

Agree. It sounds as if we may be missing some finer detail's.
If it went to the wrong address am not sure why it matters that there's a tenant or subtenant at the new address- must be at old address surely

[Arigato3]

No, there is no juicy details. We moved to the place where is 3 hours away from original house. We hired a property manager to take care of the house. The tenant is a married couple and both work for the government. So I kind of doubt that they intentionally stole the check if they had received it. I’m little worried if I go to police and the tenant was the one who took the money. I may get the check back but lose the tenant. So I asked our property manager to ask them if they had gotten the check but no response yet.

Thank you guys for your opinion. It helps to clear my head.

[CrapAtCryptics]

I`m surprised that the US still uses cheques they are pretty much extinct here mainly as instantaneous transfers are so easy.

[Arigato3]

In the U.S., It’s easy to cash out checks through your bank’s app but I don’t know how strict about matching their information such as names and stuff.

Bank cannot give us the information where the money was deposited.

The insurance company said that sending the check to the old address was a mistake.

[bobbinwales]

It still all sounds abit odd. Am not sure how someone can innocently pay in a cheque made out to someone else via an app.
It allso seems odd you dont want to upset a tennant who stole from you.
Anyways if the insurance company sent it to the wrong address its there problem to sort out.

[davebro]

We had an issue some years ago. The lady collecting for our Xmas party put the money into a building soc a/c. The BS mailed the passbook to here but the bag of mail it was in was stolen (the post office never reported it to the police). Anyways the thief used the book and withdrew the cash. After a lot of haggling the BS admitted liability for not checking the signature - the signature they had was nothing like the real depositor - and they repaid our cash.

[Peter Pedant]

there are a few obvious signs here

a bank who think there is fraud will refuse to cooperate. it seems to have happened here

a cheque goes to an address and is cashed - it is totally reasonable to say that the occupant had sometjing to do with it

landlord doesnt want to get tenant into poo-poo - kind landlord but also explains why he is in the mess he is in, and he will have to bear the loss