Originally Posted by
HomelessScientist
Unfortunately, that means that the bank account number is all the information that is needed to produce a fake check. In Europe, having someone's account number lets you send them money. In the US, it lets you either send money or take it away. Yes, this is a broken system. No, we probably won't manage to fix it anytime soon.
The receiver of a fake cheque bears that risk, not the account owner. One of the reasons we don’t like cheques.