In Europe “everyone” uses bank account numbers to move money.
* Friend owes you $20? Here’s my account number, send me the money.
* Ecommerce vendor charges extra for card payment? Send money to their account number.
* Pay rent? Here’s the bank number.
However, in the US people treat their bank account numbers like social security, they will violently oppose sharing them. In internet banking the account number is starred out and only the last two/four digits are shown. Instead there are these weird “pay bills”, “move money”, “zelle”, tabs, that usually require a phone number of the recipient, or an email. But that is still one additional layer of complexity deeper than necessary.
Why is revealing your account number considered a security risk in the US?
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Here is another layer of fun for you. If someone comes into my bank and wants to deposit money into my account, they need to show ID and be on the account. You would think… let anyone put money in my account who wants to, right? But this indeed where scams can happen.
In the case of the money transfer you are talking about it might be something like they move money in, contact you and tell you it was an accident and to please send it back. Being a nice person, you do. But they already started the process of reversing the transaction and at the end you are out the money they gave and the money you sent back.
That is a really simplistic one, but it shows the concern.
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