Is this a fraud committed against an innocent citizen, or what?

Clark Howard highlighted this story on his website. Matthew Shinnick went to Bank of America to verify the validity of a check he received for someone who bought two bikes from him through CraigsList. The bank said that the account the check was drawn upon was valid, so Matthew cashed the check.

BoA employees then called the police to arrest Shinnick, because the check was actually a fraudulent check drawn on a legitimate account number. Matthew had no idea that his buyer presented him with a bad check, which is why he went into the bank to inquire about the check in the first place. He ended up spending the night in jail, and had to spend $14,000 in legal fees to clear his name.

Matthew asked BoA to cover his legal fees because this situation occured due to their error. The bank refused to pay the legal fees, and now Clark Howard is urging customers to close their BoA accounts, since the bank clearly does not care about its customers.

Clark Howard talked to bank officials, and they still refused to pay the legal bill. Clark even offered to pay $7,000 of the fees if the bank would also pay $7,000. They refused the offer.

Clark’s listeners have reported withdrawing $20 million from their Bank of America accounts so far.

Tags: fraud, Bank of America, fraudulent check, legal fees