I've seen on ebay and elsewhere sellers requesting payment via bank wire or "direct bank deposit".  Then they openly publish:

1. The name of their bank.
2. The country in which they live.
3. The IBN routing number of the bank (which is easy to obtain if you know the name of the bank..).
4. Their account number!
5. Their first name and second initial.

Anyone see a potential problem with this???   Let me put it this way:  Just as easily as money can be "direct deposited" into an account, so can money be directly withdrawn from an account.  A dirty little secret of online banking is that numbers are usually all that are compared for verification purposes (birthdays, zip codes, etc..).  Names are frequently not used because they are inconsistent (Mike, Michael, Mikey, Mick, Miguel...etc).  So, as in this example, the seller has basically given the entire world carte blanche to his money.   In short, do not ever, ever, ever disclose your bank account number and especially not in conjunction with the bank's name or IBN number!  Some people must learn the hard way..

@stopthegop

Just as easily as money can be "direct deposited" into an account, so can money be directly withdrawn from an account.

That is nonsense.

I challenge anyone to withdraw money from my account which is 517220-52770. Bank is Kotkan Seudun Osuuspankki - Karhulan konttori, IBAN FI50 5172 2050 0027 70.

Just because US banking sector is a fragmented mess doesn't mean that rest of the world has the same. Quick hint: IBAN account details are only useful for transferring funds into bank accounts. And no, no-one uses checks anymore. Last time I saw a checkbook was over 20 years ago.

To recap: There is no need to keep your IBAN secret (at least the EU). In countries with developed banking system (such as USA), you're obviously better off by staying paranoid.

I didn't know that, thanks for the info.

Sorry, but you are both wrong.  I can't even be bothered to explain why.

But if I'm wrong, then why don't you go ahead and tell us all where you bank and what your bank account number is?  Its 100% safe, right?


edit:  you have balls, piru.  I'll give you that.  

I'm not going to do that.  Its illegal.  But its a leap of faith to say it can't be done

Just because US banking sector is a fragmented mess doesn't mean that rest of the world has the same.

I'll say. A few years ago I noticed in the news that my bank's system had been broken into and sensitive information was accessed. And of course my bank didn't bother notifying me. A couple of days later I'm trying to check out at the grocery store and my card gets rejected.

I get home and find my account cleaned out because of a charge for over $1,500 to some jewelry store in Thailand. The bank returned the money, but if I didn't have other means available, I'd have been hungry for a while.

It sounds like the system in the US is badly broken then. I have had money stolen from one account using not even that much information. When they cleaned that account out the bank automatically transfered more money out of my savings for them to steal. Needless to say I have made some changes since then, and in the end I did get all of my money back.

Jeff

Piru:  

Well it sounds like Finland has its act together in that regard.  Much more so than here in the US, which is what I was writing about since that is where I live (and bank).  Just for argument's sake, lets say you (or anyone) went and initiated a wire from a website that is, shall we say, less secure than the website run by your bank in Finland.  Moneygram, for example.  Maybe Western Union..

On Moneygram, you can wire anyone (even yourself)cash  using a checking account, which is considered "verified" if you have the account number and IBN number.  They also require that you provide a credit card as a "backup funding source".  But what if the credit card belongs to someone else, and the checking account to yet a third person?  I  know for a fact that they don't verify the name you give them against the name on record with the bank or the credit card company.  See how they cover their own *ss by making you (or someone) essentially "pay" twice, but otherwise they play fast and loose by not even checking to see if the person requesting the wire is the same name associated with the checking account and is the same name of the person on file with the credit card company?  

But then again, lets say you're really in a pinch and you need to wire some cash electronically, AND everything is 100% legit?  What then?  Would your bank in Finland allow the wire?  How would it know the difference between these two transfer requests - one legit, the other complete bullsh1t (wrong name, but valid account numbers, etc) and initiated from a website (or even over the phone) by a company that isn't your bank?    

Like I said, if you can wire money in, its probably not that hard to wire it out.