Hi All, we totally appreciate the concerns.
We were asked to provide Bank Details for our members that were finding it difficult to make a payment via DonorBox.
We were initially hesitant about offering this in the first place, as quite rightly it has been pointed out that there is a small additional risk this carries. It should always be assumed that there is always a possibility / risk the bank details could, in theory, be 'altered'.
That being said, DonorBox and PayPal and other payment processing methods are also 'potentially' prone to scams and malicious activity.
Nothing online is ever entirely secure, for example, it is common place for businesses to send emails to customers including sort codes & account numbers, and emails are far easier for a Scammer to intercept and tamper with - yet it is common practice.
The short version: Members are quite right to point out the risks. Any online payment comes with a level of risk and we would encourage all Members of the site to exercise caution when paying anything to anyone -- and that includes to us.
To re-iterate, our **recommended** way to pay is via DonorBox which offers options for PayPal or Stripe payments which both offer additional levels of protection for users who find themselves victims of a scam.
As always, we take cyber security seriously, and protecting our Members is always at the front and center of our minds; we are continually evaluating the risks, including the additional risks Payment Processing now adds to The AnswerBank.
In this case, given the bank details appear only in an Editors Question that cannot be edited by anyone but a fellow Editor (or hacker – in which case we have other, arguably bigger, problems!), we have assessed the risk as minimal at this time.
That being said, in light of the concerns raised I have added some additional Warning Text to the question and the bank details outlining the risks and also explaining that users should never use Bank Details mentioned anywhere else on the site:
https://www.theanswerbank.co.uk/AB-Editors-Blog/Question1808295.html
Lastly, whilst a Member has clearly acted in a helpful way by sharing the details in this thread, we have removed the Answer that provided a copy of the details. Whilst the details were correct and the member did nothing wrong, moving forwards, I’d ask members to only ever point other members at the above question for accurate bank details and payment methods; not least because these could change over time. I will speak to our other Eds about updating the
Site Rules to accommodate some specifics around the new Donations feature.
As always, thank you for your support.
M.