There is a law called Know Your Customer.
Comment on What if a billionaire wants to help you?
spongebue@lemmy.world 2 days ago
Hypothetically: Banks don’t generally scrutinize the source of the money or why it’s being transferred. If the funds exist in the account, they just make the transaction. Also it’s on the gift giver to pay any applicable taxes.
In real life: Scammers posing as a billionaire are infinitely more likely to contact you than a real one. The scammers will depend on you thinking a normal bank transaction won’t work so you can jump through some hoops that will inevitably have you paying them real money instead.
HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world 1 day ago
cattywampas@midwest.social 2 days ago
In the USA banks most definitely scrutinize the source of money and why it’s being transferred.
spongebue@lemmy.world 2 days ago
Emphasis on “generally” in my statement. Of course there are exceptions where they would, but if I had a multi-million dollar check from Warren Buffett for replacing a few light bulbs in his house, the bank isn’t going to call him and make sure that’s a reasonable price or anything.
litchralee@sh.itjust.works 1 day ago
Banks can and do get into hot water if they’re found to have handled – inadvertently or not – funds which ends up with banned entities, like DPRK or terrorist groups, or are the product of fraud AND that they ignored reasonable suspicions.
The classic example is the so-called “703 account” of fraudster Bernie Madoff, held at JP Morgan Chase bank. Although a humble checking account, it saw huge money inflows and outflows, with one reference showing a single withdrawal of $1.3 billion. For their wilful disregard of the obvious red flags, the bank was fined $461 million of their own money, separate from the seizure of the account to pay the victims.
spongebue@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Those are all extreme cases unlikely to be relevant to OP’s question.
mimic_dev@lemmy.world 1 day ago
The general rule is anything over 10,000 gets flagged and investigated if there’s additional suspicious activity. Same as when there are multiple deposits just under 10,000
spongebue@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Emphasis on this part. Either way, what you’re describing is generally for tax purposes. Going back to the original question of the thread, if I had billions of dollars and wrote a stranger a check, the bank is highly unlikely to make sure I meant it. At most they may report it to the government to make sure I pay gift taxes (which are paid by the giver, not the recipient, and even they apply far above $10,000 but you still need to report it at that level)