We had a customer ask to wire $100 to Nigeria. The wire was held by the back office so we could get details from the customer on the purpose. The same day the customer deposited a $10,000 check, which we determined to be fraudulent. When we questioned the customer, he said the funds were to go to the same person in Nigeria. He said it was to a preacher to help get the customer's bride out of the country - how someone can fall for this type of thing....

Anyway, we did not wire any funds, so neither the customer nor the bank lost any money. We consider the customer to have been the intended victim of a scam. Although we told the customer the check was fake and will be returned, I'm not sure if he is still 100% convinced or not.

Should we file a SAR on this? I have read guidance issued by FinCEN a number of years ago stating SARs should not be on 4-1-9 Advance Fee Frauds if neither the bank nor the customer lost any money, as long as there were no other indicators of illegal activity warranting a SAR (such as investment fraud, counterfeiting, forgery, or misuse of a U.S. government seal. Wouldn't this fall under that guidance, or does the fact that the check was fraudulent trigger a SAR?

Have you identified the suspect? If you have, then I believe the $10,000 fraudulent check triggers a SAR since there is a $5,000 threshold when a suspect has been identified.

If you have not been able to identify a suspect, then your SAR threshold is $25,000.

The FinCEN guidance on the 4-1-9 scams was to prevent a flood of useless SARS every time someone received an email from a Nigerian Prince or other "government official."

For those who haven't read the referenced guidance, here is a link:

https://www.bankersonline.com/articles/107253