A friend wants to use my account for a wire transfer. Is this a scam or is it legitimate?
"This is another version of an old scam -- ""let me have a check deposited in your account because I can't open one for some reason, and I'll share some of the money with you.""  Here the scammer is promising to ""start a business"" with you as a way to gain your confidence and trust. The first danger sign is that you only know this person from online.  They are not someone you are friends with in the ""real"" world.  They could be anybody.   They used the name of a big company as a way to make what they're doing sound legitimate, but it's all a fraud.  They could be depositing a faked Exxon check into your account, which could land YOU in huge trouble. Here's the thing -- The only way Exxon (or any other company) can deposit money in a bank under someone's name is if that person provides the account and routing numbers to an account that already exists.  No company can just create an account in another person's name.  That's Hollywood movie stuff, but it's not how banking works.  To open an account, the bank would need identification on the account holder, so your ""friend"" already has an account if Exxon has allegedly deposited money.  Further, Exxon isn't going to take back money that has already been deposited.  In fact, they can't take it back.  If the account is in his name, they can't do anything to the account or with the account.   This is a situation you should run away from and never look back.  Nothing about this story sounds right or legitimate, but this is one of the oldest scams out there since the beginning of the Internet. You would be well advised to stay VERY far away from your supposed friend, because they're anything but your friend.  You are being SCAMMED.  Don't be a victim.  Stop communicating with this person immediately, and DON'T give them any personal information of any kind.  They're crooks! I hope this helps. Good luck!" I know people who work in the gulf and most contracts are of the 14 days on/ 14 days (or so) off flavor. I've never heard of someone being onboard a ship or platform for a year. I bet this is a scam. 100% scam. This is classic of mixing real (Exxon) with fiction. This gives credibility to story. Don't give any thing, there is no damage yet. If you take the bait, there are multiple ways to get money from you. "A friend since July online and big business talks and trust/money forwards.  Usually a question ""is this a scam or legitimate?"" is hard to answer since obviously scams are modelled after legitimate stories (or they'd easily fail). If there were bookmakers for ""scam or legitimate"", this one would easily gather odds of 10000:1.  The only plausible reason for this to be legitimate would be to defraud the scam-or-legitimate bookmakers. At any rate, Exxon is a large company and has to obey labor laws.  They cannot set up operations in a manner where their workers may not have access to their salary for prolonged times without easy remedy. Drop communications immediately, don't open them, don't read them.  They hook you with emotional investment.  They will redouble efforts if it appears you are slipping out of their reach.  Explanations will become more plausible, more pressing, more emotionally charged.  You are a big promising fish and they won't let you swim off without a serious struggle to rehook you. Hand your communication so far to law enforcement.  That may help with not having to figure this out on your own." "Just one further point to add to what everyone else has said. There are no oil rigs or platforms ""off the shores of Liverpool"". Liverpool is on the west coast of England, on the oil-free Irish Sea. The UK's oil industry is in the North Sea, to the north-east. Aberdeen would be the correct city." "As a woman who was once married to someone who worked offshore in the North Sea, in the Gulf of Mexico, off the coast of Nova Scotia, in fact all over the world...and my husband's rig was contracted through Exxon (by the way, Exxon contracts rigs, but doesn't own any), this is most certainly a scam.  Even if you do not believe all the above information, I will tell you this.  Offshore oil companies will either have schedules consisting of two weeks on/two weeks off or one month on/one month off.  If he is in the Gulf of Mexico, it is almost certainly two weeks on/two off.  Which means this ""person"" who is your ""friend"" is lying to you, because contract or not, no employer holds any employee on the rig for an entire year.  In addition, he can leave the rig anytime he wants to, due to a personal emergency.  And no, once a paycheck is deposited in an employee's account, they cannot take it back.  LOL!! I would like to see them try!!  Don't do this.  It will only cause you heartbreak.  And since all of the posters recommending that you NOT fall for this POS line of bull have nothing to gain, guess who is telling the truth?  It's not your ""FRIEND""!" "This is not only a scam but it is potentially fraud that may get you in trouble. This ""friend"" of yours will wire you some money in which you do not know where this money is really from. It's obvious from other answers that his story is fictitious. Thus it is likely that this money was stolen through another scam/hack in which now he wants to wash this money through your bank account. If it turns out that is was stolen, any money you withdrawal for your ""cut"", will have to be returned and your account will be frozen." In many countries it is a legal requirement or in some other way mandatory for the banks to ban the owner(s) of an account to allow a third party to use the account. In some countries if you willing give someone access in this way you get no compensation what so ever and you'll be lucky if they catch the crooks and even luckier if you get any of your money back. Don't forget the possibility of jail time due to the criminal activities going on under your name.
"Usually services like Western Union or MoneyGram only give the recipient the money, not the information about who and when sent it. But you can verify with them directly.  However, for legal/tax reasons, your friend might have to declare that it was a gift, and where it came from. So depending on the country of the destination you might not be able to completely ""hide"" from the recipient, even if the transfer service technically allows that. In any case, when you transfer the money out from the US you'll have to provide your personal identification and information. Since the USA PATRIOT Act, it is impossible to transact ""anonymously"" (not sure if it ever was possible in the US, actually)." All the items listed are required for International Wire transfer. In wrong hands this info along with other info can cause issues. Most of the times you trust the person with this info and hence is less cause to worry. So the key is if you don't trust, don't give the details. Use alternatives like; Best open an account for receiving funds. Share the details, once the funds are received move it to an account where the details have not been shared. Alternatively paypal or other such services can help. "This is definitely a scam. My husband was inquiring with a ""company"" that was offering him to be. Representative for them. He got the same job details but the company was called Ceneo. I did due diligence and found that the real Ceneo has no problems receiving money directly from buyers around the world. The fake company mirrored their website, posted jobs on the net,hoping to ""employ"" unsuspecting people in the U.S. This is their reply to my husband when he asked the job details. DO NOT GET SCAMMED and held accountable for money laundering." I wonder if your rational thinking is getting confused by the prospects of getting some deposit from that person? He needs, amongst other things : •online access username  •online access password  Ok, so you have 1000 in your account. They deposit 500 and you are happy. Then they take out all 1500 and you're done :) How can you not think it is a scam when you're giving them your login as well. Here is an analogy. Some stranger asks you for keys of your home (while you're away) and tells you he will just go in place a gift inside your door and go away. Would you give him your keys and come home later expecting a gift to be there and nothing taken away? Is it a scam if the person only wants to deposit into my account, not make a withdrawal? Who is to tell? P.S: Sorry, please don't mind the rest of this answer but from it could also be related to a new relationship that you are in. Going ahead with this might cause you a lot of emotional harm as well. You seemingly trust that person when there are obvious signs that you are being defrauded, possibly in the name of love. Of course, it is a scam.  Regardless of how the scam might work, you already know that the person on the other end is lying, and you also know that people in trouble don't contact perfect strangers out of the blue by e-mail for help, nor do they call up random phone numbers looking for help. Scammers prey on the gullibility, greed, and sometimes generosity of the victims. As to how this scam works, the money that the scammer would be depositing into your father's account is not real.  However, it will take the bank a few days to figure that out.  In the mean time, your father will be sending out real money back to the scammer.  When the bank figures out what is going on, they will want your father to pay back this money. Yes. It is a scam. The story makes no sense. They just want your info to steal your money. regarding requests to know how it works:  the scammer is requesting:  username, password, routing number, checking account number, and   security question/answers. they now have access to your bank account. they will have access until you are able to shut it down. Once they have your password, they can change it to whatever they want.  it can be used to launder money, steal money from other accounts you have, proof of identity... "The other answers describe why this is highly likely to be a scam. This answer describes why you don't want to get involved, even in the unlikely case that it isn't a scam.  I'm describing this using US law (which I'm not particularly familiar with, so if I go astray I'd suggest others fix any flaws in this answer), but most other countries have similar laws as these laws are all implementations of a small number of international treaties have very large memberships. The service you describe (accepting money transfers from one party and transferring them to another) is one which, if you engage in it for profit, would classify you as a ""financial institution"" under 31 USC 5312, specifically paragraph (a)(2)(R): any   other person who engages as a business in   the transmission of funds, including any person   who engages as a business in an informal   money transfer system Because you would be acting as a financial institution: Failure to follow such requirements can lead to a fine of up to $250,000 or a 5 year prison sentence (31 USC 5322). See also: Customer Identification Program and Know Your Customer." Yes, it is a scam. There is no doubt about it. Never give your bank password to anyone, especially strangers. You will lose your money if you fall for this. "He wants to send me money, as a gift. Do you know this friend? It could easily be a scam. What I don't know is that how much money can he send and what are the taxes that would be applicable in this case? There is no limit; you have to pay taxes as per your tax brackets. This will be added as ""income from other sources"". I'll probably be using that money to invest in stock market. If the idea is you will make profits from stock market and pay this back, you need to follow the Foreign Exchange Management Act. There are restrictions on transfer of funds outside of India." "If wire transfer through your bank does not work then perhaps one of the more popular money transfer services may be what you are looking for such as MoneyGram or Western Union. Now these rely on a trusted ""registered"" third party to do the money transfer so you need to make sure that you are working with a legitimate broker. Each money transfer service has a site that allows you to perform the search on registered parties around your area. There are certain fees that are sometimes applied due to the amount being transferred. All of these you will want to do some detailed research on before you make the transfer so that you do not get scammed.   I would suggest doing a lot of research and asking people that you trust to recommend a trusted broker.  I have not personally used the services, but doing a quick search brought many options with different competitive conversion rates as well as fees. Good luck." You don't say WHY she wants to give you money. Your paragraph appears to be the very definition of a scam. Run from her. "I recently received a wire of more than $150K into one of my accounts. (Both sender and receiver accounts are US banking institutions.) My bank never contacted me to ask any questions. However, on my statement I noticed a charge called ""Analysis Service Charge"". I called the bank to ask them about this charge and was informed it was due to internal analysis for the wire transfer. They did this behind the scenes without needing to contact me. I can only assume that their ""analysis"" did not turn up anything suspicious, and if it had, perhaps they would have contacted me. I wouldn't worry about it even if you do receive a phone call and they ask a few questions. I'd advise to be completely honest; if you aren't doing anything wrong, you shouldn't have anything to worry about. Most likely they'd be calling you just to make sure you actually know about it and were expecting the money." "Here we go again! Why, oh why, would someone just open a bank account in your name with that much money for no good reason?  Unless there's a very rich relative in your family tree, this can not come to a good ending.  Besides, if this was money being left to you by someone as part of an inheritance, you'd hear from attorneys from the estate. Notwithstanding everything @NickR posted about the details of what makes it suspicious, ask yourself why a banker would contact you by email about an account with this much money in it.  The bank would, at the very least, send you a registered/certified letter on official stationery.   So what happens here is when you give them your banking information, whoever it is that's doing this will clean out your account, and that's for starters.   They will ask for enough information to steal your identity too, and if you have good credit, that'll be gone in a heartbeat. The best scams (meaning the most successful ones) always appeal to peoples' greed, using large amounts of money that just miraculously belong to the victim, if only they'd give a little information to ""transfer"" the money.   Worse yet, most of these scams will come up with some kind of ""fee"", ""tax"" or other expense that you have to pre-pay in order to make the transfer happen, so this just adds insult to injury when you find out (the hard way!) you've been scammed. DO NOT reply to the email you received or, if you already have, don't send any more responses.  If they think they may have you on the hook then they won't stop trying, and it will become very messy very quickly. THIS IS NOT REAL MONEY!  It isn't yours, it doesn't really exist, and all it will do is come to no good end if you go any further with it. Stay safe, my friend." There are lots of red flags here that point to an obvious scam. First, no one, not even people close to you, ever have a valid reason to get your password or security questions. EVER. The first thing they will do is clean out the account you gave them. The second thing they will do is clean out any account of yours that uses the same password. Second, no one ever needs to run money through your account for any reason. If its not your money, don't take it.  Third, this person is in the army but was deported to Africa (not to any particular country, just Africa), and is still in the army? This doesn't really make sense at all. This is a blatant obvious scam. This is definitely a scam. I had a friend sign up for a very similar offer and what they did was send a fake check and then asked to transfer the same amount to them. So now you just send them a couple grand and you're holding a fake check.