"Laurie R" wrote in message
...
nightjar wrote:
You only have to send
your bank details, which they say is needed to get the money past
currency controls, and that gives them enough information to empty
your account.

But your bank's address and your account name, number and sort code
appears
on every cheque you write - it's hardly secret. Surely you need more than
that to empty someone's account.

You wouldn't normally have sent a cheque to these people, so they wouldn't
have that information. The only other thing needed, besides your bank
details, is a copy of your signature. The early Nigerian scams used to ask
you to send a blank, signed, sheet of paper, but that did tend to make
people suspicious. However, most people will obligingly sign the letter in
which they send the details, so it only needs a modest skill in forgery to
create a letter of authority to transfer funds out of your account.

Colin Bignell