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When you know someone’s bank account number you can only send them money. This issue simply isn’t possible.

• deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
• justinc8687 4y ago
  That's not true. As a business, at least, I can run an ACH Debit[0] with just a routing number, account number and name. NACHA rules prohibit this, but nothing programmatically prevents this from happening. [0] https://plaid.com/resources/ach/how-does-an-ach-transfer-work/#:~:text=.%20ACH%20Debits%20%E2%80%94%20Requests%20for%20the%20ACH%20network%20to%20%E2%80%9Cpull%E2%80%9D%20money%20from%20an%20account%20that%20the%20requestor%20(%E2%80%9Coriginator%E2%80%9D)%20doesn%E2%80%99t%20control%2C%20say%20for%20a%20pre%2Dauthorized%20bill%20payment https://plaid.com/resources/ach/how-does-an-ach-transfer-wor....
  • brewdad 4y ago
    u/vimy was talking about European banks. There is no "pull" there. People freely share their account info because one can only push money in with that info.
    • Silhouette 4y ago
      That's still not true. Pull-based schemes are widely used across the SEPA region and in national schemes such as the UK's Direct Debits. A notorious celebrity in the UK famously revealed his bank details as a stunt to show that a large-scale data loss incident wasn't a big deal and he ended up making an unexpected payment to a healthcare charity shortly afterwards.
      • vimy 4y ago
        I don’t know about the UK but in my SEPA country only companies can create pull-based schemes and they can’t do it without authorization of the bank account owner. Mostly used for things like utility bills. So there’s zero danger in sharing your bank account number with someone.
        • akrymski 4y ago
          1. It's easy to setup a company 2. There's no validation that the direct debit is being setup by the account owner
          • vimy 4y ago
            1. It’s a bureaucratic mess. And scammers will also need to deal with the bank first. 2. With a paper form they need your autograph and other ID data. Or when it’s digital you need to authorize the request with your banking app.
            • akrymski 4y ago
              In the UK it's £10 to register a company online in minutes. Direct debit instructions require nothing beyond a name and account number.
    • lxgr 4y ago
      Quite the opposite – SEPA direct debit is an extremely successful payment scheme in many European countries.
      • nephanth 4y ago
        Note that, at least in France, you can't do a SEPA direct debit with only the account number. You need a SEPA dd "mandate" which is a (paper or electronic) document account owner asks their bank for, containing a unique identifier