PHOTO: Careful Who You Give that Check to

chkPHOTO: An area resident sent the attached photo to TLS, after the $36 check he sent to charity was edited a ‘bit’.

“My account was debited for $136 for a $36 dollar check that someone added a “1” to,” the resident told TLS.

He also offered a piece of advice. “People should review their checks written out and make sure they weren’t tampered with.”

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27 COMMENTS

  1. 1) The bank is supposed to look at the numeric and where it is spelled out.
    2) This is why I always give cash OR get a prepaid book from the tzedakah org.

  2. I hate to say this but the name of the charity should probably be publicized. Unless it was one used by individual solicitors.

  3. Looks to me the bank scanner picked up part of the standard amount box that is printed on a personal check. No intentional fraud here.

  4. Not sure which bank this was but by law the words written on a check override numbers if there is a conflict so no one should have gotten a dime more than $36

  5. The bank obviously didn’t do a great job looking at the check. The “1” looks pretty out of place, the spelled out part says 36 and the date is off by a year!

  6. Point of the notice isn’t intended as an accusation. (This may have just been a banking error.) The purpose of the post is to remind to all check writers to keep track of checks written out and cashed.

  7. Any bank I’ve ever used will not accept a check if the numerical number and written amount don’t match. They won’t even give you the lower amount- certainly not the higher amount. The bank should refund him the amount.

  8. if the bank cashed this for 136, it is their mistake, there is no sign of a human alteration of the amount, it is part of the box around the amount, and is not an alternation from the tzedaka.

  9. This happened to me, also with a charity. It was a bank error, looking just like this check. They gave the charity the actual amount I wrote, but took off the extra hundred dollars from my account. When I called the bank, they gave me back the $100.

  10. This check was never cashed by the bank. The bank puts the amount they paid on the lower right hand corner along the same line as the routing number and the account number.

  11. This check appears to have been from 2013 however that was written in error. This check was cleared from the bank last week. If you look closely you will see that there was a tracing of the outside edge of the numerical box. This may not be clear on the posted picture but it is clear on the bank image and it was clear to the bank representative that handled my account. This true intention of this is unknown however I could speculate that this was done so as not to appear that there was any tampering with the check. It would seem as just a bank or human error.
    To reiterate, this notice just shows that errors can happen when issuing checks. I will continue supporting this particular charity but I will be extra careful to review all checks that are cleared from my account.

  12. A few months ago a $10 check was given to an individual collecting & it was forged into & spent $1000,so please be careful who you give checks to

  13. Hi number 14 – Hey,

    The date on the check is over a year old, but “the check” most likely isn’t. It’s a common mistake people make in the new year.

  14. To bank customer
    You are dead wrong. The bank will give you the amount of the written words regardless of which is higher. Anyway how do we know theres fraud here? Maybe the check writer made a mistake on the written words line? Anyway I agree that the 1 is the box. Non story.

  15. Check fraud is a big pain, even tough it’s the banks mistake by paying it, it’s not a 2 minute thing, it could take hours and a few trips to your local branch, most banks immediately open you a new checking account, and will force you to close your current account within 30 days, and they will require that you file a police report and bring them a copy of the report before they will refund the money back into your account.

  16. #22 me says: that’s kind of a racist statement. What exactly do you mean, people living in Jackson can’t make a donation to a tzedaka organization.

  17. before spreading rechulis on tzedak org. look at the check no one edited it but the bank pick up the line from the box, i would be more careful with the bank

  18. to the person who said the person who wrote the check lives in jackson so what does that mean only people who live in lakewood give tzedeka /if that was the case we really feel sorry for all the tzedeka orgs. who need help

Comments are closed.