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Bank Transfer
 

Hi all,

Just sold an item on eBay and the buyer has told me he can't use his credit card to buy the product.

He lives in Spain and has asked me to provide him with my bank details / IBAN number etc.

Is there anyway this could be a scam?

The product sold is about £400.

Thanks

Never give your information to another person like that. Yes that is most likely a scam.

Tell him to send it western union or get a paypal account. He is the one that wants your item, so you should not have to jump through hoops to sell it to him.

Could NOT AGREE MORE.

Tell him to get a Virtual Credit card, or Gift card to pay you.

C'mon Lee...??? It is every bit of a scam and most likely something even more. Don't show any weakness to the buyer. Lay your cards on the table and give him his options. Will it be a gift card or a VCC? Are there any other methods of payment?

waterproof

Thanks guys, my gut was telling me something wasn't right but I thought in todays day in age bank transfer would be a secure method...

Shows what I know!

Thanks again.

I hate these types of things. Ebay goes overboard to supposedly protect buyers, but let crap like this go on.
If a seller makes the buyer adhere to the terms of the auction the buyer can just leave bad feedback.
How many times have you had an auction end only to have the buyer contact you to say they don't have Paypal or any form of credit card.

I disagree completely. Bank Transfer is extremely safe and no way on earth would I send £400 worth of goods to Spain by Paypal. Are you crazy? How are you going to confirm delivery?? Not with International Signed For.

With Bank transfer he can't reverse the funds. Make sure he sends the transfer with shared charges.

People in Europe use bank transfer as standard and it's stupid Brits who trust Paypal and are too paranoid to give out bank information whilst they happily write cheques all day long containing the same info!

Although I no longer post outside the UK as I don't trust Italian and Spanish ebayers!

With bank info, the scam 'buyer' could easily do an unspecified transaction and completely withdraw all the funds from the seller account. Could also buy inkjet printer check blanks and print up paper checks against the seller's bank account. Many other things could go wrong.

Bank transfers can indeed be reversed. All the sender of the funds has to do is put a stop payment or reverse the charge, same as a paper transaction.

There is nothing good about that buyer faking that payment excuse. Never give bank account information to anyone. Your bank never needs it because they have it. Same applies for you, you already have it. Nobody else has any legitimate need for it, except direct deposit of your payroll or your income tax refund. And I really don't trust those even 40%.

Great information Vic I didn't know that!

By the way, what is the monitary value of 400 in the UK converted to US dollars?

Re: post 9 - you are quite welcome. I don't mind helping people keep the money they worked hard to get

Re: post 10 - you can always get the current exchange rate using www xe com (double ewe double ewe double ewe dot ecks ee dot sea oh em)

Put dots in those space for the actual address.

I agree with BODE!

What Vic says may be true.
However I have been selling items wholesale for years.
And I have accepted bank transfers from dozens of customers.
I find it safer than paypal! For example any banks I deal with , would be responsible for any lost funds due to some kind of scam.
If some scammer cleaned out my account , my bank would have the funds back to me within 24 hrs. I have never had any problems with bank transfers .
I have probably accepted 100 000USD over the past few yrs via direct bank transfer.

I would suggest using an account that doesn't have your life savings in it.

I recently emailed my bank and explained to them I was going to have a customer transfer funds .. I asked them to provide me the details needed to complete the transfer.
The transit number and institution number etc.
So my bank knew I was planning on forwarding this information to a 3rd party that would then send me payment via direct transfer.
They provided me the details , with instructions .. and there was no mention of any potential danger or warnings not to give this info to anyone?
If you don;t give people your account number .. how can they pay you ??

It just makes sense !

Agreed with jesseinkaron, i do business with europeans all the time, it is normal to do bank wire transfers. The point is to not EVER keep any money in the account in which you receive bank wires, if it is a scam, there is nothing there to take. Withdraw funds as soon as they hit.

Bode I am not sure how Bank Transfers are done in Europe, But I do Bank transfers and L/C's (letters of Credit) with Asia ALL THE TIME.
A Bank transfer is JUST THAT, A BANK TRANSFER, in other words The Buyer instructs his Bank to send the Money to the Sellers Bank, who in turn deposits the money in the Sellers Account. That is why bank transfers have to be Schedueled between the 2 BANKS involved, NOT the 2 Individuals. AT NO TIME do PERSONAL account numbers go to the other Bank or the other Individuals Involved. It is the Banks that do the Transfer among them selves and then the individual banks deal with their own Customer.

If each of you will PM me your routing numbers and account numbers, I will transfer $1 to each and every one of you. I will then submit a diffent type of transaction against 90% of your available balance. I will own your money and there is no recourse for you to recover or dispute that transaction. I removed the exact name of the transaction so that lookie-loos won't get any ideas that would bring harm to others.

There does exist a type of transaction that requires nothing special, no ID, no signature, no verification, and any losses to you are not covered by your bank or other entity. The only thing the perpetrator needs is the name of your bank and your account number. If they have your routing number, they don't need the name of your bank. Either one of those items can easily be cross referenced publicly or via search engine. There's a huge list available to everyone. It's public and proper. Not some underground uber-secret-handshake-club text file.

For those who have no complaints yet, I say you are dealing with honest people. Take note that one creep can ruin you.

[my first edit was to remove the transaction name]
[my second edit was to withdraw my invitation for anyone to send me their bank info. I don't want to prove that such a thing exists. I don't want your money, unless you are paying me for something real.]

Vic ,

Are you sure that this works on Canadian Accounts ?
Maybe this is an American thing ?
I saw another American posted that Banks don't need your account number but only your name to do a transfer ? That certainly is NOT how it works between Canadian and European Banks.

I know very little about Canadian banking. I am not directly certain that it would work with European banks, but I have been personally assured by a shady acquaintance that he has in fact observed it in the first person perspective.

I do directly know for an absolute fact that US accounts are subject to these transactions. A very few people (relatively) have ever even heard of this. Security through obscurity.

For US banking customers: Do not give your account information to people you are not very familiar with and only in relevant situations and only if there is not other alternative available.

When I have had need to transfer funds to offshore suppliers, I have always had my bank arrange a wire to the receiving bank manager. Bank to bank, but neither myself nor the recipient exchange account information between ourselves. I talk to my bank, they talk to their bank, then the banks do their thing.

I do not write checks. Ever. I use certified cashiers checks and money orders, sometimes. But I never ever put my account number on anything that is not within my own bank.

This is a rare transaction and not likely to victimize anyone. It has happened before. But the possibility that a person gaining your number could know what to do, and you having no recourse...

I have to say I am very peeved. I have previously posted a couple of warnings that make partial reference to a mistaken and false sense of security.

Already, it seems a couple people have attempted to misuse my information. It's a good thing I didn't tell the whole story in full detail.

I did not and do not intend for my words to EVER be misused in a manner that would cause harm to anyone. Physical harm or financial harm.

With that said, I will no longer explain myself when I warn people to be careful.

Simply, be careful, people.

I Want to add something here that to me seems to be the source of the confusion here. My post above is 100% Correct when you are talking about a BANK TRANSFER, however I believe that readers here are confusing this with an "ACH" transfer, ACH stands for Automated Clearing House, for this type of transfer People DO provide their bank account numbers as well as their Banks routing Number, these types (ACH) of Transfers are COMPLETELY Different from TRUE Bank transfers. ACH payments are processed much the same way that a debit or credit card is.

All the seller Needs on the other end is a Merchant Account that processes ACH transfers, Which are VERY common (Most merchant accounts do offer this service).

These type of transfers are "SOMEWHAT", But NEVER as safe as a Credit Card Transaction.
By the way Credit card transactions are Safer than Debit card transactions in MOST Cases, it really depends on the Card type and the issuing bank.

At any rate ACH Transfers are the LEAST SAFE type of transaction, with Letters of Credit or L/C being the Safest, followed by Escrow Account Transfers, Then TRUE Bank Transfers, and the rest as noted above.

ACH Transfers are Very common All over the world including here in th U.S.-- I Think ALL Utility Companies offer ACH or "Pay by Using your Checking account" Option. Many retailers also accept ACH Transfers.

I hope that this post clears up any confusion that I might Have caused in My earlier Post.