That's how check kiting works, and AFAIU banks long ago stopped permitting withdrawal of funds that haven't cleared, unless they have other reasons to trust you

That's how check kiting works, and AFAIU banks long ago stopped permitting withdrawal of funds that haven't cleared, unless they have other reasons to trust you or to claw back their money. Perhaps there still are modern equivalents to kiting. I dunno. But, yeah, in any event fraud is a real problem. It's why we can't have nice things, at least without paying an insurance premium.