When you receive a money order or cashier’s check from someone for a car, boat or other large purchase, you probably think it’s legit because it looks so officials. But phony cashier’s checks and money orders is a growing problem. The number of fake cashier’s checks more than tripled in the past five years and grew more than 50 percent in the past year. It’s possible because of the high quality printers out there today. They’re so good that even people in the banking business think they’re real. The fact that the clearance process is so antiquated makes the situation even worse. In 2006, it would be very easy to electronically verify that a cashier’s check is real. But banks don’t want to do that because they have less responsibility the current way and they want to keep it that way. So, anytime you receive a cashier’s check you want to meet the buyer at the bank and get real money from the bank in return.