Rick, Mary

I am sorry for not being able to reply soon enough to be of direct help. It is a relief that you escaped from this one.

As a rule, whenever excess funds are found in an account the standard procedure is to authorize the bank to reverse the transaction. Any further action may be dangerous - as proved by the attempted scam.

VERY IMPORTANT: you only authorize the bank to do anything to your account in connection to this check/credit/fraud, AFTER you receive a written request to do so. You must consult with your lawyer before signing anything they put in front of you.

You should not be requested by the bank to do nothing other then sending an authorization to reverse the transaction unknown to you. The authorities may ask for other things - mostly information that could help find the perpetrators - but this is totally different.

Why do I say this?
Because your bank was used for the fraud and they gave you incorrect information that would have helped the perpetrators if you weren't cautious. There is a (remote) possibility that a bank employee is involved, so they should be afraid of the possible developments. Its lawyers could try to reduce their (possible) liability by means of requesting you to sign some kind of disclaimer, so you must consult with your lawyer before signing whatever the bank presents to you.

Your lawyer should write (or at least check) any comunication or document you send to the bank. If the bank works well, consider that they should have recorded all your conversations with them from the moment the fraud was discovered.

The bank is not your "enemy", but until all the situation is cleared with the authorities, they will protect themselves, so you do the same.

For Mary: the reason why I wrote that a wire transfer is ALMOST as good as cash is that a wire transfer may be reversed in certain circumstances. It is not simple and not as easy to be used for frauds as checks, but it can happen, especially intraday. On the other hand, cash may be counterfeited, so there is no 100% safe system.

Take care,
Luiz