It is not as easy as it sounds. Those kind of withdraws (direct debits) needs special accounts to start with, and can be cancelled talking to the bank (during a

It is not as easy as it sounds. Those kind of withdraws (direct debits) needs special accounts to start with, and can be cancelled talking to the bank (during a "grace period", typically 2 weeks). The process to determine if that withdraw was legitimate is done with the money on the original account. If you have more than normal rate of "rejections", your special account will be cancelled, and could be difficult to run direct debits again... The specifics can change from country to country, of course. I know that in the US direct debits are rare (while in Europe are quite common), so maybe the process changes. Anyway, your bank account number is still sensitive info, as there are scams that can challenge the whole process (generating lots of direct debits, or trying to duplicate legitimate ones to go "undercover")