How long does the bank give you to pay back a scammed check?

I am sorry to say that the worst that could happen is that he could end up in jail for Check Fraud. Because he presented the check as valid to the bank they may go after him. Now, will that happen probably not, but it is a possibility as banks have done this before.

What will more likely happen is that they will require the money returned. If it is not returned they will close his account and turn it over to collections. They will also turn him into ChexSystems, which would block him from opening up another account for the next several years. Don't expect the bank to give him more than 45-90 days to do this. Eventually if the money is not paid back, they could file suit against him.

What did he spend almost 10K on? At least some of that stuff should be able to be sold(or returned). If he can get a majority of the money back the bank may work with him to give him more time. The key would be to keep open communications with the bank. In fact it might be good to start it now before they come to him.

By law a bank has to clear a check by a certain amount of time. As seen in the Clark Howard show this "fake" check can take 6 weeks to come back as bounced, even though it has been cleared by the bank. The mystery shopper scam is extremely common. So is any other scam that involves you getting a check and sending money back. Sorry to say the bank is not at all responsible. They followed procedure according to the law...

Well... at least the scammers didn't get a penny this time.

But your nephew is on the hook for the entire 10K since this

check obviously bounced.

He needs to talk to the Bank immediately and try to set

up a repayment plan. There is no way out of this.

He spent $10K worth of money that he didn't have to begin with.

That it was a scam doesn't matter. He should have waited until

the check cleared. This is one hard lesson to learn and no matter

how you twist it he is still responsible for the entire amount.

My best guess is that they will be willing to work out a payment plan with them. This will be like them loaning the money and he will have to pay interest.

The person who was talking about jail is ignorant. For him to be guilty of criminal fraud, the prosecutors would have to prove that he knew the check was bad in the first place and did this on purpose.

If he has no funds to pay it back, he should contact a bankruptcy attorney immediately and see what his options are. Most attorney charge about $1500.00 to file.