Receiving money from Singapore for payment of goods

[Pistom]

I've been approached in the UK by a collector who lives in Singapore and is a Singapore national to purchase a piece of memorabilia which he has offered £11000 for.

He has had the item checked by a third party valuer and is satisfied with condition and authenticity and now wants to go ahead with the purchase by making a direct bank transfer into my account.

This leaves him at risk as I could run off with the money (not that I would) and he says he is comfortable that he can trust me and doesn't consider there to be much risk.

Is there any risk to me and do I need to keep any records for HMRC etc?

If he makes a direct payment from HSBC to RBS, at what point is the payment irreversible?

[rickh]

the bank transfer once he has sent is isn't reversible, before the goods went you just need to check with your bank for cleared funds just to make sure he hasn't paid a cheque or similar into your account which would show then obviously he could stop or it may bounce?

[Pistom]

Many thanks. I was wondering whether he could do anything else with my bank details if he was a scammer but he's gone to a lot of trouble if all he is getting are my account number and sort code.

[williaa68]

Ask him to send you a scanned copy of his Singapore ID card. He could obviously fake this but that alone is a serious offence in Singapore and if the funds come from a Singapore bank you will be able to get the Singapore CID on his case.