A Stolen Check Problem
 

After contacting a sponsor regarding a missing payment I have found out the a check that was sent to me from that sponsor was somehow stolen, found its way to the Palestinian authority where some crook simply wrote my name on the back of the check, deposited it and is now enjoying my money where he is protected by being a citizen of a foreign jurisdiction.

I've contacted the local police and i was told that i can't really press charges because the check wasn't actually stolen from me because it was actually stolen before it was in my possession. and that if i could press charges there's still a problem of the check deposited in other jurisdiction that acts like a "third world country".

In other words, I was clearly told to contact the sender of the check and ask him to cancel the check. because he is the only one who can reverse a fraud of that kind.

I have contacted the sponsor, told him about the problem and waited for an answer.

That was 4 months ago,
After keeping bugging the sponsor to ask his bank what's going with this issue I have received a short message saying:
The bank can't reimburse the money, sorry for the trouble.


I'd really like to hear, What would you do?

It's been such a long time that I'm not sure there is much that can be done. If your in the US you should have:

Contacted the sponser to make sure the check was indeed sent and then request they put a stop payment on the check. They could send a new check or simply roll the amount over until the next pay period. (not sure how a sponser would handle this).

Contact the Postal Service. Tampering with US mail is a federal offense.

Now, again if your in the US, I would simply contact the Post Office and report it. Doubt that they can do much to get your $$$ back but it will alert them that there maybe a problem.

I'm not in the US,
I contacted the sponsor to inform a missing payment and was told to wait at first, it was only later that i have been told that the check was cleared outside my jurisdiction. it was less than 3 weeks before the theft was noticed and informed.
I asked the sponsor to act fast and like i said I had to wait 4 months for an answer.

These were 4 long months that were more than enough for the bank to inform the foreign that they will not pay for that check.

Is it really me who should be responsible for that check?

the check was not made unendorsable / not negotiable. so there was absolutely no way to protect it.

Is that my fault?

This time it's me.. next time it can be anybody

That sucks!
:(

At which point in the cheque's journey do you think it was stolen?
Does the postal service where you live take responsibility for carrying your mail?
Have you taken any steps to try and prevent another incident?

As walrus says the time passed may count against any recovery.
:(

Sorry...you posted your second comment just before my first!

I couldn't agree more
No one can tell :-(
Yes, if it's registered mail and there's proof it was stolen from them.
I get more wires now
But I have notified the sponsor 4 months ago.. Not after 4 months..

Obviously this depends on what country the cheque was stolen in, but in most jurisdictions the responsibility lies with the post office, they are duty bound to pay out compensation. HOWEVER they are responsible to the person who sent the cheque, not the person it is addressed to. You will have to get the sponsor to claim from the post office then send you the money.

ecchi,
In this case, the sponsor's representative was upset from my repeating requests to take care of this stolen check issue by saying something like "I'm not customer support, I'm the CFO and can't look after this issue and take care of it as i have many other things to do"

I would expect the CFO to know who to address when handeling such an issue.

I too believe this is the sponsor responsibility to take care of such issue. yet the sponsor has clearly prefered to simply say "forget about the money"

Knowing they send checks outside the US, Wouldn't it be logical to make the checks marked as "Pay Only To:" ?

Frankly speaking, How can one trust a sponsor to handle such events successfully?

In that case, if you make a lot of sales for that sponsor I would tell them that you are going to pull all their links if they don't sort it out. If you do not make a lot of sales for them then I can think of no way of forcing them to take action, particularly as they are in a different country to you. In that case I would stop using this sponsor (although this will not get you your money, it will at least mean that if it happens again you will be with a sponsor who may actually do something about it).

Clearing US cheques in non US banks is a lot more complicated than most "foreign" cheques (I guess this is to do with US banking laws). Making a cheque "Pay Only To:" may make it harder, or even impossible, to cash outside the US.

ecchi,
I also run some gambling sites and get US and canadian checks that are clearly a "Pay Only To:" checks.

Can you imagine an online casino affiliate program saying to an affiliate: Hey, we are sorry for the trouble but your $2,500 check can not be reimbursed.

they take all the required precautions

M.D - someone intercepting and stealing your cheque is not your fault and shouldn't be your loss... the sponsor still hasn't paid *you*.

The long and short of it is that the sponsor probably can't be arsed to sort it out / go through their bank's fraud procedure, and so you're out of pocket.

Drop 'em ASAP. And tell us who they are.

(Just as a by the by, my bank manager told me he was loathe to accept US cheques because it's possible for a cheque to be returned unpaid after almost any length of time - it's never fully "cleared").

We've had a couple checks we've sent overseas stolen and cashed.

What we have to do as required by our bank is get the webmaster to sign a statement saying they didn't cash the check and get it notarized. We then bring it to the bank and they reverse the check and we can reissue a new one.

Jermey,
I have a business account in my bank, my bank manager told me the same when i opened it.
He said:"
It takes for US checks 16 days to 'clear' but i strongly recommend you to wire the money into your account".

I had a few thousand dollars worth of checks stolen from my UPS Store mailbox by one of their employees last year.

It was a huge hassle. I still haven't seen a cent of those stolen checks, despite all kinds of talk by the manager of the store (who was then fired shortly after), various detectives and court types, etc.

The sponsors won't do a thing for you.

That reminds me, I have to make another round of useless phone calls to various court and lawyer bozos. The person who stole the checks is supposed to pay back the stolen money. I might start getting some of it sometime in 2006.

What a crappy situation M.D. |angry|

No way could this be interpreted as your fault. I'd say this falls squarely on the sponsors door step. They haven't paid YOU...they paid some unknown person. As you describe the situation, the delays were also on the sponsor side...again, not your fault at all.

The sponsor should make this right...or they should be outted so others know how they deal with situations like this.

The sponsor won't do anything.

Think about it - if sponsors had to pay for every stolen check, what would keep people from giving a check to someone, saying it was stolen, then demanding a replacement.

My stolen checks were from big name sponsors that I wanted to keep using, so dropping them would only have punished me.

My suggestion? Send the Sponsor an invoice. You didn't receive payment, invoice them, and if you are in a really crappy mood, slowly but surely move it to collection.

It is up to them to prove that you were paid. Otherwise sponsors could just take random checks, give them to their buddies to cash, and call it even.

Alex

The sponser is the only one who can really do anything about it...and they really do have a lot of options at their disposal. If notified early enough they can put a stop payment on the check. As long as the check hasn't cleared the bank, a stop payment can be made without any problems.

Either way thier bank should be willing to work with them to recover the funds.
Because its called fraud and is quite illegal and carries with it a relatively unpleasant jail term.
They are big name sponsors who will allow money to be stolen out of your pocket. You show much more loyalty to them than they do you.

I couldn't agree more.
The sponsor is the only one who has the power to cancel the stolen check and should tell his bank to cancel the fraud withdrawal.

However, I have alerted the sponsor to this thread and was finally promised a new check will be sent to me this week to make things right.

Frankly speaking, I am still a little skeptical about this as i feel this should of the first sponsor step before the 4 months passed.

I'll wait for a new check to arrive and make things right. I'll post here to let you know.

For sure keep us posted, bet every one would like to know who they are if they dont make things right, or just blow you off.

Really sucks things like this have to be taken to a message board to get the sponsor to do something.

ronnie