Question about Bank Transfers and Fraud

clickcell

Let's say somebody offers to provide me with a service in exchange for £40 transferred from my bank account to theirs. It seems like this is a potential scam and the service may never be delivered. But my question is, would I lose anything more than the £40 I transferred? Can they do anything with my bank details to acquire more funds, or maybe ID fraud?

eskbanker

If you've transferred money to them then they won't have your bank details!

Edit: as per later posts, they may do, but would be limited in what they could do with these anyway.

Ballard

A faster payment record would have your name, account number, sort code & reference but to the best of my knowledge no banks forward the account number or sort code to the beneficiary as a matter of course.

Even if they did pass that information on there's a limit to what someone can do with it. That information appears on your cheques, for example. Swift (Chaps) payments will also include your full name and address but I'd assume that you wouldn't be using that method.

pafpcg

Ballard wrote: »

A faster payment record would have your name, account number, sort code & reference but to the best of my knowledge no banks forward the account number or sort code to the beneficiary as a matter of course.

Well the Clydesdale does! My Clydesdale statements do show the sortcode and account numbers for transfers in and out.

clickcell

I see. I bank with NatWest if it makes a difference.

MarkFromCornwall

clickcell wrote: »

Let's say somebody offers to provide me with a service in exchange for £40 transferred from my bank account to theirs. It seems like this is a potential scam and the service may never be delivered. But my question is, would I lose anything more than the £40 I transferred? Can they do anything with my bank details to acquire more funds, or maybe ID fraud?

If they have your sort code and account number they could set up a direct debit on your account, but there wouldn't be much point because they couldn't set it up to pay themselves, only to pay a business, a charity, etc. Also, you could get the funds back through the direct debit guarantee. Remember, we give people cheques that have our sort code and account number and signature on, so giving out your sort code and account number is no more risky than paying someone with a cheque.

P.S. intrigued to know what the 'service' is!

eskbanker

* waits for obligatory reference to Jeremy Clarkson *

Ballard

pafpcg wrote: »

Well the Clydesdale does! My Clydesdale statements do show the sortcode and account numbers for transfers in and out.

Oh okay. I wouldn't say that that information would generally be needed by the beneficiary so I'm a little surprised that Clydesdale add it to the statement.

You live and learn.

alternate

It would provide no more information than writing someone a cheque.

McKneff

Dont pay them until they have given you the service, pay them then just forget about it

You and most other people on here are making mountains out of molehills

eskbanker

McKneff wrote: »

You and most other people on here are making mountains out of molehills

That's not how it reads to me - most other posters have sought to alleviate OP's concerns, i.e. making molehills out of mountains!