Bank Details and Home Address

His bank account can be used for fraudulent uses.

Such as? How so?

Collecting bona fide bank account details appears to be the prime object of the constant stream of scam emails from our Nigerian friends, who are so desperately anxious to remit huge wodges of cash to me.

Seems to me a completely unnecessary risk to publish any sort of bank account detail, particularly on the internet.

Rgds

__ Richard Buttrey Grappenhall, Cheshire, UK __________________________

A common misconception, but not true. They can't do anything with your bank details, and most people give details of an empty bank account anyway.

The scam is that they claim that various officials need bribes before the money can be released, and they invent various expenses that need to be incurred. These bribes and expenses are how they make their money.

Thanks for the replies so far. One thing I have found is that I can set up a Direct Debit, for example I could buy a new contract mobile phone on

Joe

Right. Account number and sort code can be found on any cheque you write. Your address will be sent (I think if you would hope to receive your goods) to anyone whom you buy from (online). So why are we not seeing massive cheque fraud due to the amount of buying and selling that goes on on ebay where buyer pays by cheque?

Marcus

Exactly the same details are on every cheque, and can be obtained from many Switch/Maestro cards too. If it were that easy to defraud based upon sort code, account and name, there would be a huge amount more happening than appears to be the case.

It might be better to get a PO Box instead of publishing a postal address, though, particularly if the cited address is that of the bank account's owner.

I'd suggest he changes to using PayPal

Jon

You could set up a direct debit for onging monthly payments using someone elses bank details, but how would you set up the contract without revealing your real identity? How would you get the phone delivered without giving your address? Someone wishing to try direct debit fraud would not be daft enough to give out their real address surely?

The Inland revenue would be a potential hazard perhaps?

Yes and despite all the talk of USD 30-50 millions. (I've had the emails also BTW!) Nigeria is a desperately poor country. I suspect the scam goes on at two levels one is the "Grand Prix" level where the play is for extracting GBP 5-50K, where their lure falls on stoney ground then they might be happy to setlle for GBP 15-40 which would buy a lot of Nigerian food.

DG