LAWYERS WATCH OUT FOR THIS SCAM

A purchaser, usually from overseas, approaches your client, the seller, to buy their house or apartment. This purchaser, may not have a lawyer, and being from outside the country, asks you to recommend an attorney. The purchaser suggests to sign the contract by pdf. through the internet and wants to give a contract deposit greater than 10%.  Lets use an example of $ 100,000.00. The purchaser signs the contract and sends you a $ 100,000.00 official bank check from an American bank. You deposit the check in your escrow account. Immediately, the purchaser pulls out of the deal and asks you wire back the contract deposit, but generously offers for your client to keep a large portion, such as $ 50,000.00 for his or her trouble.
Here is the catch. Many banks will make the money available in your escrow account before the official check is actually and fully cleared. You wire $ 50,000.00 back to the purchaser. In the next few days,  your bank notifies you that the official check is counterfeit and $ 100,000.00 is retracted from your escrow account. However, you have already wired $ 50,000.00 back to the purchaser and your account is now $ 50,000.00 short.
Believe it or not, under the servicing agreement with your bank,  you may be responsible for the loss even though the funds were available for wiring the next day after the deposit.   It actually takes at least several days and sometimes longer for the banks to fully clear a check. Your bank will now go after you for the $ 50,000.00.

Be very careful if you encounter a similar fact pattern in your practice. It may very well be a scam. Also know that banks routinely make available funds deposited by check in your account even though the check has not cleared. Always make sure that a check you have deposited is fully and finally cleared before writing any checks or sending wires against it.