Scam

[Mark Winlund]

"To do such a transfer requires them to have your routing #... once they have that, they can transfer stuff OUT of your account, leaving you with a zero balance."

Uh... no, I don't believe that is so. I think if my bank allowed a wire transfer out of my account without me being involved, they would have serious liability issues. I have used wire transfers many times, and there are many safeguards in place. They are commonly used for large transactions because of this.


"Mark - That is what I always thought. However, I think it was someone here on the creek that warned of wire transfers that were funded by check that could still be reversed. It is my understanding that you need to make sure the transfer was funded by cash."

That is a fault of the check, not the wire transfer. The wire transfer itself is actual cash, not a "promise to pay" like a check. Once it becomes an actual wire transfer, it is real money. This is why many foreign companies require wire transfers... guaranteed payment.

Mark

[Dan Hintz]

"To do such a transfer requires them to have your routing #... once they have that, they can transfer stuff OUT of your account, leaving you with a zero balance."

Uh... no, I don't believe that is so. I think if my bank allowed a wire transfer out of my account without me being involved, they would have serious liability issues. I have used wire transfers many times, and there are many safeguards in place. They are commonly used for large transactions because of this.

They have your name and they have your routing #... that's all that's required to get a hold of everything that account contains. Why do you think the scams that ask for that info are so common? They claim to want the info to put a large sum of money into the account, but once you've passed it on you'll wake up in a day or two with a zero balance. It is considered private information, and it should stay that way.

[Roy Nicholson]

Queen Street, Melbourne is in the Central Business District

the postcode is 3000

the postcode 3001 is for post boxes at the central post office.

We have a major retailer called Coles... but I doubt if they'd employ someone with such p[oor English to source products from international suppliers.

Regards

Roy N.

[Matt Gibb]

G'day Brian,
The postcode is wrong, it should be 3000. As so graciously put in some of the other replies, we Australians do usually speak better english than that, you know, words like bonza, beaudy, ocker, strewth, crikey, aveagoodweekend and didyabringyagrogalong.

[Scott Shepherd]

They have your name and they have your routing #... that's all that's required to get a hold of everything that account contains. Why do you think the scams that ask for that info are so common? They claim to want the info to put a large sum of money into the account, but once you've passed it on you'll wake up in a day or two with a zero balance. It is considered private information, and it should stay that way.

That's not the way it was explained to me by my bank. It's my understanding that a wire transfer is an excellent method of payment for the reasons Mark described. The downside risk is for the buyer, not the seller, as a seller can easily setup a fraudulent account to take wire transfer, get your money and skip town and you'll have no way to find them.

You can search the internet and find numerous articles by major banks explaining how safe it is.

[Mark Winlund]

That's not the way it was explained to me by my bank. It's my understanding that a wire transfer is an excellent method of payment for the reasons Mark described. The downside risk is for the buyer, not the seller, as a seller can easily setup a fraudulent account to take wire transfer, get your money and skip town and you'll have no way to find them.

You can search the internet and find numerous articles by major banks explaining how safe it is.

This is my understanding of this as well. I called my bank yesterday, and they confirmed what I said. The risk is upon the sender of money, not the receiver. Once it becomes a wire transfer, there is no getting it back. This is why foreign companies and large corporations insist upon wire transfers.

Mark