The Story of Matthew Shinnick
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Here’s how the story goes: Matthew Shinnick was trying to sell a pair of mountain bikes on Craigslist. He found a buyer and they agreed on a price of $600. The buyer mailed him a check for $2,000. Instead of depositing the check at his bank, he went to a Bank of America branch, where he was not a customer. He asked the teller to check if the account had sufficient funds to cover the check, the account did, but the check was phony. The teller let the branch manager handle the situation, and he called the police and reported suspicious activity. The police came and arrested Shinnick and he spent around 12 hours in jail. (Full Story)
Okay, when I first heard about the whole thing, I just said, oh great, another fool and his money are parted. What’s different about it this time? I found out Clark Howard from The Clark Howard Show is “taking on Bank of America” in asking them to close accounts or withdraw money. How idiotic is this?
One, we can safely assume Clark Howard doesn’t give a damn about Matthew Shinnick, this is just great publicity for him.
Two, Matthew Shinnick is an idiot. I can’t see how people can have sympathy for him. Scammers prey on weak minded people like Shinnick who can’t smell a simple scam. Never try to cash checks you think might be phony. Never accept checks for online sales at Craiglists, eBay, etc. etc. Especially checks that are more than 2 times what you originally agreed upon. Also a check from a buyer that lives in another country.
Three, Bank of America shouldn’t reimburse Shinnick for his troubles, they were not at fault, all they did was report suspicious activity to law enforcement. It is up to the SFPD to use discretion in handling of the matter. The reasoning is to try go after Bank of America because they have deep pockets, as compared to the SFPD.
9 Responses to “The Story of Matthew Shinnick”
Whoa. This is the side of the story that I never heard. I use BoA and while I didn’t think of closing an account with them, this story made me a bit nervous. Glad to hear the truth.
By Anonymous on Oct 16, 2006
It seems like they arrested the wrong person… He also didn’t try to cash it according to your account, he checked to see if there was sufficient funds. But the guy is kinda dumb for accepting a check. Checks are so 1950’s…if he’s using Craigslist he should be using PayPal or some other 3rd party intermediary which allows for some level of redress. What a fool.
By Tim on Oct 18, 2006
He did ask to cash the check, here’s the excerpt from the article
“”She said it was a valid account and that there were funds to cover it,” Shinnick recalled. ‘I said, ‘Great,’ and asked to cash the check.’”
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/08/30/BUGTGKRHSF1.DTL
By HeJustLaughs on Oct 18, 2006
Actually, there are good reasons not to use BoA, but the treatment of Shinnick isn’t the most important one.
By Anonymous on Oct 25, 2006
Check out all teh latest on Matthew Shinnic at http://www.bankofameica-reallysucks.com
values man
By Anonymous on Nov 1, 2006
I think Bank of America’s biggest sin here is their incredible arrogance and unwillingness to apologize or assist in Matthew’s legal fees. With its complete disregard for elementary PR, BOA has made itself the poster child for mistreating consumers.
By Anonymous on Nov 7, 2006
Hey, look! A moron!
1. They’re not trying to “go after” BoA. They can’t “go after” BoA because California law states that financial institutions are not liable for false arrest. They are simply trying to get the bank to help cover expenses incurred.
2. Why isn’t this BoA’s fault? Shouldn’t BoA be reporting the guy who wrote the false checks versus he who attempts to cash them? For Chrissakes, the guy didn’t initlally try to cash a phony check. He even asked, first, if the check was valid, and the bank said it was. If you ask me, that’s entrapment.
Was he dumb to fall for a 419? Eh, probably. But hell, he did due diligence first because he was immediately suspicious.
For someone who seems to take great glee in poking at the so-called “weak-minded”, you sure have a lot of links for gimmicky, make-money-fast sites and otherwise low-nutrition, high-calorie financial advice articles and links.
By teedz on Nov 8, 2006
…And don’t forget women shouldn’t wear sexy clothes or flaunt their stuff or they are just asking to get raped.
By Anonymous on Nov 16, 2006
Sorry, bud, this seems a lot like the rantings of youth. As a 19 year old you’re probably much more versed in online scams and fraud than the average middle-aged person. Shinnick is a middle aged shirt salesman and had never sold on Craigslist before. As for the scams and how he should have known better - you think the scams would still be out there, if everyone was already “hip” to them? Why do you think some scammers target the middle aged and elderly? (Others target kids - i.e. exorbitant messaging charges for services/jokes via cell phone, etc.) It’s not because they’re dumb - God knows Depression era people as a whole save a lot more than their baby boomer kids and even younger grand-kids, as smug as they may be.
You need to appreciate that not everyone knows all the same things at the same time. Certainly you could gain some more wisdom and knowledge. As stated, you have links to “MMF” sites. Which were stinky when they first came out decades ago.
By Anonymous on Jan 8, 2007