Asked 4/12/2016 – Killeen, TX

I have a friend who is in a bit of a situation his friend asked to have money sent from his brother to his bank account.. Thinking he was helping him out he agrees and turns out the money wasnt from his brother.

Answer

What you describe is incomplete. I can speculate on your situation with a common scam that affects people. Someone comes up to your friend. States: “I do not have a bank account, but I have a check from my brother (or wire transfer) that I can put into your account. It’s for $5,000, and you can keep half; just give me the rest in cash after the deposit is made”. The check is deposited, cash is given to the scam artist, then the check bounces or the wire transfer turns out to be fraudulent, so the bank account holder is out of pocket the cash he gave the scam artist. If this was the case, criminal charges can be filed against the account holder if the withdrawal created an overdraft. If this does not describe your friend’s situation, please give more detail about what is problematic.