Small claims for insufficient funds on a personal check, possible fraud?

[MsJohns]

Kansas
I ran into my sister one day at WalMart, she was trying to cash a personal check at customer service that her friend had wrote her. She could not cash the check and asked me if her friend rewrote the check out to me if I could cash the check for her because she did not have a bank account. I was hesitant so I asked her why her friend could not just go to the bank or atm and get cash? She responded stating that her friend had lost her debit card and that the bank was out of state. Trusting my sister I agreed to cash the check for her after reassuring me that nothing would happen to my bank account. The check was for $220, after cashing the check she gave me $20 (I was assuming to be nice knowing I was struggling financially), I gave her the remaining $200 she thanked me and we both where on our way. About a week later she had called me asking if I would cash another check for her. This is when I found out that the first check had been returned with insufficient funds. Her friend now refuses to pay me back the money that was debited from my bank account, basically stating that she did not believe that the money was debited from my account even after sending her a picture of the returned check. Can I take her friend to small claims court to get my money back?

 

[xylene]

If this were me... I wouldn't have cashed the check...

And if I foolishly had... I would my sister to make good on the favor I did for her and her friend before I had to involve the police for writing me a check knowing there was insufficient funds.
I'm sure your sister can scrape together 200 dollars, she can't that be resourceless.

 

[FlyingRon]

You can take her to small claims but you can also go to the district attorney's office in the county this took place in and file a complaint there. Passing bad checks is a crime. Usually, they'll let them make good on it in lieu of prosecuting.

 

[Just Blue]

Kansas
I ran into my sister one day at WalMart, she was trying to cash a personal check at customer service that her friend had wrote her. She could not cash the check and asked me if her friend rewrote the check out to me if I could cash the check for her because she did not have a bank account. I was hesitant so I asked her why her friend could not just go to the bank or atm and get cash? She responded stating that her friend had lost her debit card and that the bank was out of state. Trusting my sister I agreed to cash the check for her after reassuring me that nothing would happen to my bank account. The check was for $220, after cashing the check she gave me $20 (I was assuming to be nice knowing I was struggling financially), I gave her the remaining $200 she thanked me and we both where on our way. About a week later she had called me asking if I would cash another check for her. This is when I found out that the first check had been returned with insufficient funds. Her friend now refuses to pay me back the money that was debited from my bank account, basically stating that she did not believe that the money was debited from my account even after sending her a picture of the returned check. Can I take her friend to small claims court to get my money back?

Go after, legally, your jerk of a sister.

 

[MsJohns]

If this were me... I wouldn't have cashed the check...

And if I foolishly had... I would my sister to make good on the favor I did for her and her friend before I had to involve the police for writing me a check knowing there was insufficient funds.
I'm sure your sister can scrape together 200 dollars, she can't that be resourceless.

I only cashed the check because I did not know that it would fall back on my account, I assumed It would fall back on her friend, and I trusted my sister. There is no possible way either of them are going to willingly pay me back. I have been going back and forth with them for weeks. Im wanting to know if this is a matter for small claims or not and if small claims would be in my favor.

 

[MsJohns]

You can take her to small claims but you can also go to the district attorney's office in the county this took place in and file a complaint there. Passing bad checks is a crime. Usually, they'll let them make good on it in lieu of prosecuting.

Thank you that was helpful!

 

[MsJohns]

Further questions...

I went on the districts attorneys page in my county and the complaint form they had was for businesses and required that you have there drivers license number. What can I do now? If I go to small claims is it gonna bite me in the butt??

 

[Just Blue]

I went on the districts attorneys page in my county and the complaint form they had was for businesses and required that you have there drivers license number. What can I do now? If I go to small claims is it gonna bite me in the butt??

Try the Police. See if they will help you.

 

[latigo]

Kansas
I ran into my sister one day at WalMart, she was trying to cash a personal check at customer service that her friend had wrote her. She could not cash the check and asked me if her friend rewrote the check out to me if I could cash the check for her because she did not have a bank account. I was hesitant so I asked her why her friend could not just go to the bank or atm and get cash? She responded stating that her friend had lost her debit card and that the bank was out of state. Trusting my sister I agreed to cash the check for her after reassuring me that nothing would happen to my bank account. The check was for $220, after cashing the check she gave me $20 (I was assuming to be nice knowing I was struggling financially), I gave her the remaining $200 she thanked me and we both where on our way. About a week later she had called me asking if I would cash another check for her. This is when I found out that the first check had been returned with insufficient funds. Her friend now refuses to pay me back the money that was debited from my bank account, basically stating that she did not believe that the money was debited from my account even after sending her a picture of the returned check. Can I take her friend to small claims court to get my money back?

Of course you can sue her. Provided that is, once, and only once that you have honored your endorsement and made the check good and Wal-Mart returns it to you. But you can't very well sue her for issuing an ISF check that is being held by a subsequent endorsee. Without it you have no evidence to support your claim.

Also, you might wish to provide us a plausible explanation as to why all three of you conveniently appeared at Wal-Mart's customer service counter and how the $200 in cash was divvied up! This story of running into sis by happenstance is bit shy of being totally credible.

 

[latigo]

You can take her to small claims . . . . .

Take her to small claims for what? That she wrote a $200 reader that Wal-Mart is stuck with and the judge will render a judgment in like amount in favor of the OP?

I don't think so.

 

[FlyingRon]

Take her to small claims for what? That she wrote a $200 reader that Wal-Mart is stuck with and the judge will render a judgment in like amount in favor of the OP?

I don't think so.

Eh? The OP said that the funds were debited from her bank account. I suspect the deadbeat wrote the check to the OP who deposited it into her account and obtained the funds to give the checkwriter the cash.

 

[MsJohns]

I didn't cash the check at WalMart I cashed the check at my bank and when the check came back nsf it took the funds from my account balance. I have my copy of the NSF check that my bank sent me in the mail. The girl must have known the whole time her account did not have money to back up the check.

 

[MsJohns]

Even if for some reason the small claims judge didn't believe that I cashed the check and gave the other two the money the evidence is still there that she wrote me a NSF check, I cashed it, and later the funds where taken out of my account so I dont understand how I would be in the wrong. Isn't there a way I can prove that she knew at the time she was writing a bad check? I feel fool is that I didn't have my bank verify the funds first but I didn't know you could do that till after the fact, I was not familiar with cashing personal checks and i never thought my sister would screw me like that. I assumed that my bank would let me know if something fishy was going on...

 

[MsJohns]

And we live in a very small town that's why I ran into my sister at WalMart. My sister didn't know you could not cash a personal check at customer service and she did not have a bank account that's why she asked me for the favor. I honest to goodness thought that if the check was bad it would fall back on the check writers account not mine. I thought nothing could go wrong and again I trusted my sister

 

[Zigner]

I honest to goodness thought that if the check was bad it would fall back on the check writers account not mine.

THIS is what I find unbelievable about this tale.