View Full Version : Mysterious Check Dilemna
Last week I was opening up my offices mail which is sent from our home office. I was sorting through it when i noticed a company check addressed to me in it. Its unusual for any checks to come to me as we pay all our employees on direct deposit. The check was for a lot of money. Basically 6 weeks of paychecks worth.
It was not labeled as to what it was for or any purpose or anything like that. Also, there was no other reason for me to be receiving this check in the mail. No announcement or bonus was being paid.
OK, what would you do? Should I call my home office and ask about the check? This most likely will result in them cancelling it. I personally want to keep the money because i feel like im not paid enough anyways, but is there any legal problems i could encounter from that? Would you inquire about it and return it or would you cash it and plead ignorance if inquired about the money in the future?
MDoranD
4_2_it
10-20-2005, 03:22 PM
I have worked in and supervised several accounting departments. If the check was cut in error it will eventually be found and your cashing it will not make you look like the most honest person in the world. Do the right thing and make the inquiry.
xadrez
10-20-2005, 03:42 PM
Hi, My name is Idi. Send the check to me and Ill cash it, then send you your half.
Trust me
swede123
10-20-2005, 03:46 PM
Are you seriously considering cashing this, hoping the company won't find out? If you do, my advice is go ahead and cash it.
Swede
drewjustdrew
10-20-2005, 03:48 PM
If you do not open the mail normally, I would question whether this has been happening for some time and the person who normally opens the mail, or delivers it, or receives it before you, isn't committing some kind of fraud.
Turn it in. At worst, you are seen as honest /images/graemlins/smile.gif. At best, you get special recognition for preventing fraud. /images/graemlins/grin.gif
bobman0330
10-20-2005, 04:08 PM
It doesn't seem like it would be illegal to cash the check. But when the company finds out, which they probably will, you'll have to give the money back, and they might get pissed and fire you...
Cash it at your own risk. I used to work in payroll for a huge company and I can think of two instances where a bonus went to wrong person. If the check wasn't supposed to go to you and you cash it, they will find out and try to get the money back. My advice would be to inquire about why got the check, because you won't get to keep the money (if you want to keep your job) if you weren't supposed to get it in the first place.
In one of the instances I was talking about above two employees had the same name and the wrong one got an $80,000 bonus. By the time the right person came around asking where his 80 grand was, the other guy wasn't with the company anymore. They didn't try to recover the $80K because it wasn't worth it (I told you it was a huge company).
Unfortunately, no one at the place (who was due a huge bonus) had the same name as me.
[ QUOTE ]
Hi, My name is Idi. Send the check to me and Ill cash it, then send you your half.
Trust me
[/ QUOTE ]
There can be only one Idi, my friend.
However, I would happily cash the cheque for this young man. He needs to send me his cheque and his banking information to expedite the process. Allah be praised.
swede123
10-20-2005, 04:41 PM
[ QUOTE ]
Cash it at your own risk. I used to work in payroll for a huge company and I can think of two instances where a bonus went to wrong person. If the check wasn't supposed to go to you and you cash it, they will find out and try to get the money back. My advice would be to inquire about why got the check, because you won't get to keep the money (if you want to keep your job) if you weren't supposed to get it in the first place.
In one of the instances I was talking about above two employees had the same name and the wrong one got an $80,000 bonus. By the time the right person came around asking where his 80 grand was, the other guy wasn't with the company anymore. They didn't try to recover the $80K because it wasn't worth it (I told you it was a huge company).
Unfortunately, no one at the place (who was due a huge bonus) had the same name as me.
[/ QUOTE ]
This is a good point. Clearly there's a point where the amount of money in this erroneous check would make it worth risking losing one's job. For me right now this number would hover somewhere around 43 dollars.
Swede
Hi Idi. Many of your friends want to buy my stuff on Craigslist without seeing it first. You are trusting people. I love african cashiers checks /images/graemlins/crazy.gif
lol
peachy
10-20-2005, 07:30 PM
id call and ask them even if i needed the money, its not worth the risk - as far as legal stuff they cant do anything to harm u except cancel the check and pull it back out of ur account, it was written to u so u cant be in trouble for cashing it...but if they do pull it back and u have insufficent funds then ur in a poopy situation
bookkeepers will eventually audit this when the books come up funky if this is an incorrect check - so if u have no idea what this is for i wouldnt cash it cause then ull look like either a VERY ignorant person and an ahole, niether of which im sure ur company wants - call them
Dude, you realize it's a severence check right? Start stealing office supplies right now!
LLL
peachy
10-20-2005, 07:34 PM
[ QUOTE ]
Cash it at your own risk. I used to work in payroll for a huge company and I can think of two instances where a bonus went to wrong person. If the check wasn't supposed to go to you and you cash it, they will find out and try to get the money back. My advice would be to inquire about why got the check, because you won't get to keep the money (if you want to keep your job) if you weren't supposed to get it in the first place.
In one of the instances I was talking about above two employees had the same name and the wrong one got an $80,000 bonus. By the time the right person came around asking where his 80 grand was, the other guy wasn't with the company anymore. They didn't try to recover the $80K because it wasn't worth it (I told you it was a huge company).
Unfortunately, no one at the place (who was due a huge bonus) had the same name as me.
[/ QUOTE ]
im sure someone in payroll got fired for this error
HopeydaFish
10-20-2005, 11:43 PM
[ QUOTE ]
Dude, you realize it's a severence check right?
[/ QUOTE ]
The more I think about it, the more I think that this is the correct answer -- it's a severance cheque. That's the only reasonable reason that I can think of that a cheque worth 6 weeks' pay would arrive unexpectedly like that.
Forbin
10-21-2005, 04:09 AM
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Dude, you realize it's a severence check right?
[/ QUOTE ]
The more I think about it, the more I think that this is the correct answer -- it's a severance cheque. That's the only reasonable reason that I can think of that a cheque worth 6 weeks' pay would arrive unexpectedly like that.
[/ QUOTE ]
Another possibility is excess vacation time. Did you have a ton of vacation hours or days sitting there unused? Did they recently put in a policy caping the amount of you can have available at a time?
Yeah, 240 hours of vacation time is a lot to have saved up, but not uncommon. I've had over 200 a few times, and I know people with over 240.
[ QUOTE ]
Dude, you realize it's a severence check right? Start stealing office supplies right now!
[/ QUOTE ]
Disassemble your cube and clean fish on your desk. /images/graemlins/laugh.gif
IndieMatty
10-21-2005, 09:57 AM
Get direct deposit.
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