[fragmede]

For anyone in the US, if I have your bank account number, I can steal your money. I strongly advise you not to share your account number with me or anyone else. I have to commit fraud in order to steal your money, making it a crime, but stealing's a crime in the first place, so that's not going to deter thieves.

[woodruffw]

My understanding is that this is no longer true: only a relatively small set of trusted entities can perform a direct debit (check or check substitute not present) from an account number without having to perform additional verification. The ones that I’ve personally seen are utilities and colleges; I tried to do the same with a friend once (so he could pay me back for something without having any fees) and our banks refused the transaction because our account names did not match.

[razakel]

Jeremy Clarkson fell victim to this. He published his bank details in his column to prove it was no big deal, and someone set up a £500 direct debit to charity.

[dr_dshiv]

Wow, I had no idea about Mr. Clarson's experience [1]. Is this also true in the USA?

[1] http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/7174760.stm