Cell phone banking question

rrlund

Well-known Member
Since a cell phone is a tool that some find necessary and I don't have a smart phone, can somebody educate me? I've seen commercials that show that you can take a picture of a check, send it to the bank and the money is credited to your account. What's to prevent taking a picture like that and getting the money, then taking the check to the bank and cashing it at the counter? It's not your account that the money is coming out of and most likely not even the same bank, so how would they know? There's no mark of any kind on the check just from taking a picture is there? Do they hope for honesty and that the person taking the picture will do the right thing and throw it away?

The reason I ask, I checked my checking account on the bank website this morning and a pretty good sized check that I wrote last week was debited from my account twice. The first time had that AC- thing with other writing like when they run one through a machine at Wal Mart or TSC or something, the second time was after another check was cashed in between and just said Check 5*** (without the *s, just the real numbers). I had to go to the bank and sign a form so they could credit it back, but the book keeper had no idea how it happened. The check was written to a small business that I'm pretty sure wouldn't have one of those machines to run it through. He didn't give me back the check anyway like larger businesses who use them do.

I'm not accusing them of doing that, but it got me wondering what was to stop somebody from taking a picture and cashing a check that way and then cashing it at the counter. If they can do that, federal regulators need to put a stop to it right now.
 
I have tried the remote deposit thing a few times and it never works for me. I too have wondered about your question. If you take a picture and deposit it, then immediately go to the bank it was written from and cash it... I am sure it would be caught after the fact but could be a hassle for the customer and a loss for the bank???
 
The check deposit system works amazingly well and is pretty secure. You cannot just present a check at a teller window and get cash without the teller entering it into the system.

Since all banks are interconnected, the system immediately would let the teller know the check has been processed. This is possible since few, if any, get their cancelled checks sent back to them at the end of the month. My credit union has honored photo deposits for several years now. FWIW we get warned about every other year that they will stop honoring checks complexly in the "near" future but it hasn't happened yet.

On a similar note we have had a few vendors at craft fairs etc. who no longer accept checks or cash. They use the Square device and associated service to process credit/debit card payments on their smart phones. Anyone can buy a Square device and sign up for the service. Then you just plug it into your smart phone and accept credit cards. I can see where a farmer selling hay or seed would find it very useful.
 
I have been using online deposit for about a year, you are supposed to sign the back of the check with a note that says for online deposit only before you take the pictures. So theoretically an in person teller would see the note before they would process the check and conversely if you do not put the note on the back the online teller would not process the check. By mistake I tried to do an online deposit without putting the note on the back and my bank rejected it, so at least in that instance the system worked. I also had an instance where an online deposit would not work, I took the check to the bank and explained what happened, they did a quick look and said it is good, we can do the deposit.

So, nothing is perfect, but online deposits have worked for me.
 
I checked online again. The one that has the check number on it has an image of the check and as you said, there's a box on the back that says check if mobile cashing. It's checked, so that must be how they cashed it. I opened the other one that has the AC- thing and that one says No Image Available. Something monkeyed up in the system somewhere.
 
> I have tried the remote deposit thing a few times and it never works for me. I too have wondered about your question. If you take a picture and deposit it, then immediately go to the bank it was written from and cash it... I am sure it would be caught after the fact but could be a hassle for the customer and a loss for the bank???

Our local news had a story about this very thing a while back. A customer was given a check which they remote deposited and threw the check in a draw. A few months later someone came along and took the physical check to the bank and they cashed it no questions asked. He then had over-draft issues with his account.
 
(quoted from post at 13:41:22 12/21/21) I checked online again. The one that has the check number on it has an image of the check and as you said, there's a box on the back that says check if mobile cashing. It's checked, so that must be how they cashed it. I opened the other one that has the AC- thing and that one says No Image Available. Something monkeyed up in the system somewhere.

My CU requires picture of front and back. Sometimes for some reason you can't get a good enough picture to make it work.

But backside only requires the traditional signature only.

The bank looks at the amount and the weird font numbers in the lower left. That number is magnetic for in person scanning at the bank and the last digits match the check number in the upper right.

Once that check went thru once, it should have been rejected the second time by the bank.
 
I've got one right here on the desk that the wife used at Wal Mart. They usually have the amount and a bunch of other stuff printed on them after they go through the machine, but this one is as clean as a new snow. Not a mark on it. I'm not going to write it to somebody else to see if it'll work, but I sure don't see what it wouldn't.
 
Take a look at one of your checks. I never looked before, but right below where the endorsement signature goes on the back, there's
a box that says Check if for mobile deposit. I never noticed it before, but then again I never looked.
 
My online banking requires picture of front and back. The back must be endorsed and you must write for online mobile deposit only. I learned that the first time I tried it when it got rejected.
 
Since Huntington bought out the local bank and closed it I have been using the phone app. It works well but there is no float in a checking account anymore.
 

For what its worth you sign an agreement you will not deposit it twice... I have not been in a bank in several years I like mobile deposit : ) Once in two years I had to take a check to the bank that would not mobile deposit. I have deposited a many and did not put mobile deposit on it. I do now as my new name bank ask me to do it. To keep up with it I put the transaction number on the check are I may forget : (

What I don't miss is filling out bank deposit slips BTW that cost a buck. I still record the transactions in a separate book so I can reconcile it at the end of the month.
 
When it comes to the next level of online security Raymonds
James stock broker has a constantly changing password.
Each time I log in, RJ texts me a 6 digit pass code.
I don't have to remember a dang password. New pass code each
time I log in. I think this is the next level of IT security.
 
I have a friend that had that problem. He sent a $500 check to his grandson and the grandson deposited it using the camera method. The grandson's wife found the check later and deposited it in the same bank. They took $1000 off my friend's account. It took a lot of phone calls and bank visits to straighted the mess out.
 
Well, for one thing, its pretty hard to beat a bank out of anything, if you haven't noticed.
Truth is, if a check did get cashed/deposited twice, the home bank the check was wrote on would know via check number. And the bank could obtain and trace info leading back to who did it.
The picture deposit thing could easily be traced back to the phone the transaction was done on. And ID is required to cash a physical check at any bank where you don't have an account at. Even if you take a check back to the home bank it was wrote on, you still have to provide photo ID to cash it there if you personally don't have an account there. You double dip a check, they going to know who you are and who did it.
If you deposit a check, say in a checking account, and don't have any other funding in that bank (savings account, CD, IRA, etc.), some banks will freeze the deposited funds until that check clears. Not sure if all banks are that way, but I know some are. Definately if trying to get cash. I guess they really wouldn't be able to stop you from writing checks, but by the time those checks made it back to the bank, they'd probably know wether the deposited one cleared or not, and have the option to bounce the ones you wrote.
If you can figure out a better way to screw the bank, let us know. But I am not foreseeing this idea to work very smoothly in the end.
 
I have been using remote deposit for many years now and it works great. Have accidently deposited a check twice, online and in person. It is caught immediately. We have also taken checks that failed online deposit and had to scratch out parts of the endorsements. Again no questions asked. We also have no check issues with my name being misspelled, multiple variations to our business name.
 
On the smart phones(my experience) you've established your identity with your servicing bank - not just a take-a-look website - but knowing your user id, your password, your established PIN, facial rec, etc... I've found it safe and certainly convenient.

I've deposited via mobile banking for at least 10 years, and use a plastic debit card for nearly all transactions. I get cash back at local checkouts for those situations where cash is preferred.

..and if I understand your last comment - planning to re-use a check -- sounds pretty sketchy to me.

Dale, in WV
 
planning to re-use a check -- sounds pretty sketchy to me.

I wouldn't even attempt it, but as clean as it is, there's no way anybody would catch it before it made it all the way back to the bank. For those of you using the camera banking thing and it's working for you, good for you, but just be aware of what could be happening to the checks that you're writing to somebody else. It reminds me of an episode of The Twilight Zone where somebody knocked on the door and had a box with a button on it. A stranger told the guy that all he had to do was push the button and somebody he didn't even know would die, and for doing it, he'd be given some large sum of money. He spent the entire episode agonizing over it, but finally pushed it. The stranger came back, gave him the money and retrieved the box. The guy asked him what would happen to the box now? He said it'll be reset and given to somebody that 'you don't even know'. The implication being that when the next person pushed the button for the money, he'd be the one who'd die.

At the end of the day yesterday, the money was back in my account. It was a check for darned close to $1000, so not some insignificant amount. Check your account online often.
 
="rrlund"](reply to post at 09:53:00 12/22/21)

Each check is uniquely numbered and the system at any non backwoods bank will not honor the same check twice.
No matter if going out or into your account.
If your bank is making you jump thru hoops to clear up a double draw, you need to bank elsewhere.

Same goes for trying to float or kite a check. Most banks can and do instantly see electronically if the account has sufficient funds at the bank on the check. Or if the account is valid, current, etc.
 
George, this is called two factor security. I think it was MarkB who explained it pretty well in a post last week. Two factor security is something you know...username/password and something you have...code texted to your cellphone.

Two factor security is more secure, that's for sure.
 

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