You're right, it worked just fine. But I wasn't really expecting problems, it's just an irrational phobia of internet-mediated scamming or something.

Things are probably more civilized in the Old World, but here there is always some weirdness when money moves around. When I opened a bank account, the bank gave me a secret and unique number assigned to that account. This number is the key for extracting my funds.

The bank also gave me a box full of hundreds of paper slips, and each paper has the secret number printed on it (with magnetic ink, which can be detected inside an envelope). Like other bank customers, I regularly put one of these papers in an envelope and drop it in a metal box so a person I've never met can take it away and give it to another stranger.

They also gave me plastic cards with secret numbers embossed on them. People regularly stick these cards into machines owned by other banks to get paper money, and pay what I would consider lunch money for the convenience of not going to their own bank.

I think you're right, it is a weird trust-based system and it rarely lets us down.