Legal Question in Banking Law in New Jersey

Re: scam

Your first sentence is accurate. You are the victim, not Commerce Bank. Commerce would be liable for paying a check forged on your account if the forgery were discoverable. However, you are responsible for the third party checks that you present.

If the check was drawn on a U.S. bank, you may have recourse against the account holder. Likely, however, the checks were complete fakes and the account owners complained that they were forgeries. Since you paid by Wesern Union, no one has a record of who claimed the funds. It's a swindle, but it works because the victims help it along.

Some lessons: (1) If it sounds too good to be true, it is; (2) Never be an accommodation party (cash checks) unless you know all the players and can reach their assets; (3) "Cleared" does not mean paid without recourse; (4) Never use Western Union to send money to someone you don't know; (5) There is no legitimate reason why anyone would want to give you money for collecting for them.

The people who took your money are criminals. Ask your lawyer to help make sure that the appropriates have been made to law enforcement authorities.

See also: http://info.corbettlaw.net/lawguru.htm