Until reading this I was under the impression that wire transfers were guaranteed funds. Nearly everyone’s heard of wire transfer scams where a scammers gets you to send funds and then it’s almost always irreversible/you’re screwed. But I didn’t realize you could receive a wire transfer and the bank could find it’s fake months later and remove the funds. That’s insane. Good to know for the future, but how then does one receive guaranteed funds? Cashier’s Cheque (or can those be found fake after deposit too?)? Is receiving something like Bitcoin/Ether the only way to guarantee funds are real? If you don’t trust the source what non-crypto mainstream financial transfer tools can you use and be guaranteed? Are PayPal funds guaranteed?
My understanding is that wire transfers are guaranteed by the nation state at the receiving side, which is one reason most Nigerian scams are Nigerian because Nigeria will almost never refund/reverse a wire transfer and other countries have different laws/perspectives.
I believe Cashier's Checks are still the safest option, because of most Cashiers require upfront escrow of the funds involved. So long as you trust the Cashier bank in the middle of the transaction, you should be safe?
> Are PayPal funds guaranteed?
Nope. Lots of eBay scams in the history books.
> Is receiving something like Bitcoin/Ether the only way to guarantee funds are real?
Depends on your opinion of forks, the likelihood of 51% attacks, and even the underlying assumption that cryptocurrencies are "real". Not to mention you probably aren't using a cryptocurrency as your day-to-day currency so you'll encounter plenty of scams in the edges and exchange markets.
Also, there have been Ethereum smart contract scams already.
This is very, very sad. It is an extreme example of how when society moves away from in person communication it becomes meaner. When you remove the in person element people start acting much worse to each other.
