Paranoid Ebay moment

[Trygve]

I'm having a paranoid moment. I sold a piece of stereo equipment on Ebay; we're not talking about a lot of money here--$153.50--and the winning bidder turns out to be in Poland. He's got a feedback rating of 19/100%, though the most recent is from last August.

But he sent me a note after the auction saying that he needs my full name, bank account number, and the complete bank routing information and then he'll deposit the money directly into my account. For some reason, I have a bad feeling about this. In the auction, I'd listed that I took PayPal, money orders, and cashier's checks. I sent him a note back, ignoring his request for my bank information, and gave him my PayPal address and the physical address that he could send an International money order to. He just wrote back saying, again, that he needs all my bank account information and that this is the only way he can pay me for the item.

Does this strike anyone else as odd or make anyone else suspicious? Would you go ahead and send him your account information under these circumstances?

 

[isekii]

if you want direct deposit into bank you need to give him that info

 

[CanOWorms]

tell him you don't have a bank account & follow the rules of the auction

 

[Nebor]

Ask your bank. Seriously.

 

[bmacd]

sounds pretty shady. Hopefully, your bank is open today to ask them.

-=bmacd=-

 

[isekii]

i don't see what's so shady about them.
I've received direct transfers directly to my bank account, and the transfers are usually instant.

 

[samgau]

All that info is required for a wire transfer.... But I wouldn't give out that info to a complete stranger.... highly suspicious.... could be used to make fake checks... MOs are a cheaper solution than wire transfer.... thats why its so suspicious....

 

[PingSpike]

I wouldn't do it. My spider sense would be going crazy.

 

[Scarpozzi]

Yeah....Tell him that he can only pay using one of the methods of payment specified in the auction. Tell him that your bank account is with a private institution and that you can't give out privilaged information because it breaks policy. That just says that your banking with a bank and that you don't want to release your info, but if you phrase it funny like that, it sounds more official.

 

[welst10]

You didn't say "ship to US only"? This happened to me once. A guy from Uk bid and won my auction even tho I said ship to US only. I was a trouble. The guy turned out to be a scam and ebay notified me.

 

[TitanDiddly]

Does sound kind of shady. Like others said, you bank should know the ins and outs of bank account scams.

 

[Trygve]

Thanks! I've done international wire transfers plenty of times before...but it's always been with recognizable companies that I had a business relationship with. An individual who I know nothing about in Poland is a different matter. The fees are rather high for a transaction on this nature--the Wells Fargo website just tells me that the fees vary and I should contact my banker with any questions, but I seem to recall them being in the 15-25 dollar range. Not a big deal when we're talking tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars, but for $153, that's a bigger bite. It could certainly all be legit in this case, but something just feels wrong about it.

Adding to my paranoia is that I just had to shut down a business account a few weeks ago because it was the only way to stop a series of unauthorized charges. When reporting them to the bank, they'd said I had only 24 hours to challenge the direct withdrawals from the account, so if I didn't catch them immediately, my only recourse is to sue the company making the charges. Filing lawsuits is not cheap, so I had to close the account. (The company making the charges was a credit card processing company the the business had an agreement with some four or five years ago. The agreement ended thee years ago and the equipment was returned. Then they just decided to start charging the account again a couple of months back and refused to stop...even though that had all ended three years previously and we'd had no contact with them since the end of the agreement.)

 

[glenn1]

Tell him that if he wishes to do a wire transfer, you'll give him the SWIFT code for your branch, their acct #, and your acct # "for further credit to," which is all he needs.

If he says he needs your ABA because he wants to do an ACH (Automated Clearing House, also known as EFT "electronic funds transfer" or direct deposit) tell him to f**k himself since if he's in Poland he doesn't have access to the Fed Funds system to do one even if he wanted to.

 

[JackBurton]

I wouldn't give him jack squat! WTF is wrong with people? Do they not pay any attention to the payment methods specified in the auction? Like someone else said, tell him you don't have a bank account.

 

[Trygve]

Originally posted by: welst10
You didn't say "ship to US only"? This happened to me once. A guy from Uk bid and won my auction even tho I said ship to US only. I was a trouble. The guy turned out to be a scam and ebay notified me.

Nope. A third of my Ebay sales are overseas and at least half of the stereo equipment gets sold to overseas buyers, mostly to Asia. Buyers in Hong Kong and Japan will spend hundreds of dollars in shipping to get fifteen-year-old US-made audio equipment out there. Only ran afoul of one scam, and that was out of Australia. Got burned pretty bad that time, though.

The only limit I put on shipping is for the really big stuff (I've sold equipment that's been around a thousand pounds a few times) and I list that as local pickup only unless it's something really expensive. I don't know why, but no matter how many time I say "local pickup only" in the auction, I get deluged with questions about it from people all over the US.

 

[Trygve]

Originally posted by: glenn1
Tell him that if he wishes to do a wire transfer, you'll give him the SWIFT code for your branch, their acct #, and your acct # "for further credit to," which is all he needs.

If he says he needs your ABA because he wants to do an ACH (Automated Clearing House, also known as EFT "electronic funds transfer" or direct deposit) tell him to f**k himself since if he's in Poland he doesn't have access to the Fed Funds system to do one even if he wanted to.

Thanks--when I was looking up the wire fees, I saw a mention of SWIFT codes, but I'd never heard of those before. Is that safer, I take it?

 

[bmacd]

the mention of SWIFT codes jolted my memory...Western Union also uses SWIFT codes (basically, an account number IIRC). Have the guy send you a Western Union and you won't have to worry about a stranger having your personal bank info.

-=bmacd=-

 

[Kerouactivist]

Originally posted by: JackBurton
I wouldn't give him jack squat! WTF is wrong with people? Do they not pay any attention to the payment methods specified in the auction? Like someone else said, tell him you don't have a bank account.

 

[glenn1]

Thanks--when I was looking up the wire fees, I saw a mention of SWIFT codes, but I'd never heard of those before. Is that safer, I take it?

SWIFT codes essentially replace ABA numbers for international transactions. The sender's bank uses the SWIFT code and your bank's account number, that's how it gets from Poland to your U.S. bank. Then the wire give "For Further Credit To" instructions so your bank can pay you in turn.

BTW, if someone REALLY wanted your ABA # and had half a brain in their head, they could get it. ABA number lookup services are readily available online, all they need is the name of your bank and possibly your location if it's a larger bank (since larger banks will often be allocated more than one ABA since they cover multiple Federal Reserve regions).

 

[mpitts]

I'd tell the guy to piss off. He can either send you a money order or cash.