INDIANAPOLIS — Every day, our faith is tested.
Church pastors like Tammy Hallam are no exception.
"My Megan came up with a diagnosis of breast cancer, and she went through breast cancer treatment, and the treatment gave her leukemia," Hallam said. "I lost her in September of 2020."
Three years later, the grief is still very real, and part of surviving is settling her daughter's estate, including her car.
Hallam said for the longest time, she could not part with the vehicle. But after a while, Hallam felt someone else should get use from it.
In September 2022, she decided to pay off the almost $8,500 car loan with a cashier's check issued by her bank, Chase.
But the lender she mailed it to never got the money.
"I went down to our Chase branch and said, 'I need to report it, they never received a cashier's check,'" Hallam said. "So they looked into it, and it had been stolen."
The check, she learned, was washed. That means the receipt's name was altered, and the funds were fraudulently deposited into a different account.
On Chase's site, it says a cashier's check is "backed by bank funds."
Matthew Goldberg, with BankRate, said "backed by bank funds" is good for the recipient because it means an authentic check will generally clear.
"The bank is saying that the funds are there," Goldberg said.
However, for the money sender, a cashier's check is risky.
"You have to handle an official bank check as if it is actual cash," Goldberg said.
For a year, Chase sent letters to Hallam telling her that the depositing bank, Hoosier United Credit Union, is responsible for repayment.
Hoosier United Credit Union told 13News they sent the money back to Chase after they learned the check was altered in October 2022.
After 13News contacted Chase, they gave Hallam a cashier's check for nearly $8,500, making her whole.
A Chase representative told 13News, "This followed our normal process. We were working with another bank and we’re glad we were able to resolve the matter. We’re sorry for the time it took to resolve the matter for Tammy Hallam."