Hi--I need some help. The son of a friend of mine called me for advice and assistance but I'm not sure if there are any banking regulations that would apply here.
The shortest version of the facts: the guy gets a call from someone posing as an FBI agent investigating fraud in his Chase Bank account. The person knew his account info and how much money he had in the account. He then sends him a very official looking email with additional information, convincing the guy that he is who he says he is.
He then convinces my guy to go to his Chase bank branch, get cashier's check for a mid-5-figure amount, made payable to a "Malik Ponds" and deposit it at another Chase branch. They tell him this is his "alias" name for an account, and they're going to use it to monitor the fraud. This all happened on 6/18. The following day was Juneteenth. By June 22, my guy realizes something is wrong and goes to Chase and tries to stop the transaction from going through.
Important--the receipt from the cashier's check contains a delayed deposit availability statement, stating the funds will be available on 6/23.
So he goes to Chase on 6/22 and raises the red flag. He's told they will look into it. Days later they tell him the funds were withdrawn and they can't help him.
So the question now is--does Chase have some obligation to not allow the transfer of the funds before the 6/23 availability date? Is there a regulation that would govern this? My assumption is that because they were both Chase branches, the funds obviously cleared faster, but because of the large amount should they have continued to hold the funds until 6/23?
This guy isn't rich. He's a hardworking, blue collar guy that saved his money. He just got tricked.
Any advice is appreciated.