There is a vulnerability within the banks' online payment systems that is not widely known, though it is being exploited by more and more online scammers.
So that you don't believe I'm making this up I'll quote from the UK Financial Ombudsman Service website.
http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/publications/ombudsman-news/102/102-money-transfer.html...... only a sort code and an account number would be used to process a payment – and not an account name.
It's clearly not a secret but the potential for using this weakness to perform fraud is unlimited. You could seriously ask as to why bother quoting a beneficiary name at all if it isn't part of the process and it's misleading to do so, and that raises other issues.
My purpose isn't to detail to scammers how to perform fraud but it's too late. They know how to take advantage of the vulnerability and the only people who don't know the risks are the people who become victims without understanding the risks, and the banks and police just shrug their shoulders. To make matters worse, banks won't normally disclose to victims the real identity of who's got the victim's money, obstructing them from doing anything to get it back.
Combine it with a 'money mule' scheme and you have a money making scam capable of destabilising the economy. It's so simple and easy to perform and, with a few tweaks, it could be even more effective. It sounds incredible and as if I'm scare-mongering but it's not just my view and I'll provide links to back up what I say.
