Released: August 30, 2006

Scammer’s check gets innocent man arrested

Source: By David Lazarus, San Francisco Chronicle

San Francisco resident Matthew Shinnick tried to sell a pair of mountain bikes on Craigslist late last year. He attracted a buyer, received a check in the mail—and ended up handcuffed by police in a downtown Bank of America branch and jailed for almost 12 hours.

BofA calls the bizarre episode “an unfortunate series of events” and says that “clearly and without equivocation, Bank of America regrets what occurred.” But the bank says it was only doing its duty by notifying the cops when a bad check surfaced.

It also says Shinnick has no grounds to sue for thousands of dollars in legal costs because of a 2004 state Supreme Court decision that shields institutions and people from liability when reporting suspected crimes to the police.

Legal experts say that BofA is right about Shinnick’s lack of recourse and that incidents like this, while unusual, could happen with greater frequency as Craigslist, eBay and other online services increasingly become hunting grounds for fraudsters and identity thieves.

Craigslist founder Craig Newmark acknowledged that cases of wrongful arrest are “an increasing possibility” and said the onus is on institutions like BofA “to show a greater commitment to customer service.”

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