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A man in west coast Austria wants to deposit money into my account. I'm in Alabama.

I had to get an online account. I did that, but he says his bank manager needs all this information:

  • DOB
  • SSN
  • online access username
  • online access password
  • security question and answer
  • bank name
  • bank address
  • bank number
  • person who is on the account
    • their name
    • their address
  • account no
  • routing no

OK. Is it safe to do this or am I being scammed? I don't want him to be able to end up withdrawing all my money instead of depositing money.

Jeff Schaller
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donna
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    Australia vs Austria? – mhoran_psprep Aug 04 '15 at 02:28
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    Never give out the first 5 items to anyone. – Dheer Aug 04 '15 at 03:25
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    Free clue: any time a complete stranger offers to put money in your bank account, it's a scam. – David Richerby Aug 04 '15 at 10:19
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    What are you doing for this person in exchange for the money? If your answer is "nothing", or if the amount he is offering to pay is very large compared to the amount of work he is asking you to do, it's almost certainly a scam. Sadly, rich people rarely contact complete strangers and offer to give them millions of dollars. And as plenty of others have pointed out, there is absolutely no reason why someone who legitimately wants to give you money would need your id and password. – Jay Aug 04 '15 at 13:19
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    @Jay There's no question that this is a scam. NO ONE ever has any legitimate reason to ask for your bank username, password, and security questions/answers. Even your bank won't ask for your password or security question answers! – reirab Aug 04 '15 at 13:24
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    Note that a classic scam runs as follows: They deposit 1000 dollars into your account, and have you transfer some portion of it to someone else. But their deposit went in as a check and will be retroactively voided (yes, that can be done for a while after your bank says the check cleared!), but your payment was via wire transfer or gift card or some other mechanism that can't be cancelled. So even if they DON'T ask for all this info it's a scam "If it sounds too good to be true, it isn't true. Period. – keshlam Aug 04 '15 at 14:59
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    @keshlam I feel like there should really be an answer that allows people to actually force the money out of these scammers that they were "promised", aka reverse scam them somehow. Then spread this information far and wide, effectively shutting down the scammers for good. –  Aug 04 '15 at 21:12
  • @Michael - the only hope you have is to waste their time. You're unlikely to get any actual money out of them, assuming they even have the money to give. – Jason Aug 04 '15 at 21:33
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    @michael: Unfortunately, reversing the scam is not possible in most cases. If you websearch awhile, you can find semi-fictionalized reports from folks who claim to have trolled scam artists into wasting money or doing weird things in public, including one who claimed to have talked a "gold mine operator" into sending him a sample nugget "for assay"... but the folks who play that game point out that you're teasing people who are linked to significant organized crime groups, and that there is some slight possibility of physical danger if you make them too irate. – keshlam Aug 04 '15 at 21:56
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    Assuming this question is real, kudos to you for being brave enough to ask. I imagine a lot of people who aren't sure are too afraid of looking foolish to ask. – jpmc26 Aug 05 '15 at 01:20
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    I've received money from overseas clients many times (I live in Canada). They never needed more than the SWIFT code, routing number, account number, account holder name and branch address. With a US bank, perhaps not even the SWIFT code is necessary. As a general rule, if anyone offers you money that you did not earn, it is almost certainly a scam. And if they are asking for information such as your password, it is blatantly obvious that they are crooks. With that information, not only can they empty your accounts, they can probably open new accounts in your name by stealing your identity. – Viktor Toth Aug 05 '15 at 04:15
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    Not only this, even if the person is not interested in the money you have but the information you've got. It can be very useful for preparing fake passport or other legal document. Having an validated information make their fake documents look real. I wouldn't be surprise that if you provide all these details then someone else will be doing drug dealing using replica of your passport. I have lot more to explain that how and why is being done but unfortunately I can't answer. In short, beware, it is not always about money, u've got more that that "authentic identity". – Zerotoinfinity Aug 05 '15 at 11:19
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    I've cleaned up the comments on this question three times now as they're getting a bit out of hand. Please consider if you really have anything to add to what's already been said, and take any general discussion to chat. – GS - Apologise to Monica Aug 06 '15 at 10:52
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    @reirab: Really? "NO ONE ever has any legitimate reason to ask for your bank username, password, and security questions/answers?" What about e.g. Mint.com? Because it definitely asks for this information and has a legitimate reason or doing so. – user541686 Aug 06 '15 at 20:07
  • To add to this question, you should even be alerted and inform both your bank and the police if a stranger actually does deposit money on your account for no apparent reason. The usual strategy with that kind of scam is to deposit a small amount to verify the IBAN, and then a week or two later, issue a debit balance worth a couple of thousands. EU banks (or at least German banks) delay these for two weeks for that very reason now (so there is a high likelihood of detecting the scam), but I don't know if that's standard everywhere. – Damon Aug 10 '15 at 12:03
  • How do you know they only want to deposit into your account? – user253751 Aug 24 '17 at 10:23
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    I was not aware that Austria had any coasts; at least not nowadays. – TorstenS Aug 24 '17 at 11:19
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    SSN? Username? Password? Security question and answer? LOL. Just... just cash out your account, put all the money in an envelope and mail it to them. It'll be quicker. –  Nov 10 '17 at 00:54
  • https://money.stackexchange.com/questions/90568/any-risk-in-providing-bank-account-number-routing-number-along-with-name-and-dob similar question – kRazzy R Feb 08 '18 at 02:26
  • @user541686, services such as Mint ought not to have your actual account credentials (username, password, etc.), but a token that gives them access to certain data on your account. If they do want your actual password, they're doing security horribly wrong. If you do find yourself entering your banking password somewhere on Mint to connect your bank account, note the URL of the page you're on; it's almost certainly not Mint.com, but your bank's website, which Mint has redirected you to in order to get a token from your bank. In that scenario, you're giving your bank your password, not Mint. – Jivan Pal Nov 18 '20 at 04:27
  • @JivanPal: I know it's hard to believe, but it really has been their practice. For certain banks (like Bank of America) they've started changing how they do things recently (see here, "you no longer have to give us your Bank of America username and password"), but I would assume for other banks it's still the same (I don't currently use Mint). Regardless of how much you freak out about it, there are legitimate services like these that people find useful (Mint is just one example) and do use. – user541686 Nov 18 '20 at 04:34
  • @user541686, that's disgusting. I'm appalled but not at all surprised that one of the biggest banks in America has atrocious security and only just recently improved it marginally. Traditional banks do online security the worst, by far. – Jivan Pal Nov 18 '20 at 04:43

8 Answers8

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You're most definitely being scammed. You're being asked all the information required to steal your identity and take over your bank account.

And Austria is land-locked, it has no west coast (or any coast, for that matter).

March Ho
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littleadv
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    Its more than "all the info required to steal" :) – Dheer Aug 04 '15 at 03:25
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    This guys seems like an amateur asking for all that information. The pros can do it with just the first two information. – NuWin Aug 04 '15 at 06:35
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    Perhaps the scammer lives in Rust or Moerbisch am See, on the west coast of Lake Neusiedl. ;-) – David Richerby Aug 04 '15 at 10:18
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    Claiming to be from the west coast of Austria is not a stupid idea, it's actually a very intelligent filtering tactic scammers like to use to identify the more gullible victims. Sending the first e-mail is very cheap, they probably sent this same "offer" to many other people. However, replying to the individual answers of the targets costs them a lot of effort, so they only like to receive answers from the most gullible, as to not waste their time with people who will have a high likelihood of figuring it out. (http://research.microsoft.com/pubs/167719/WhyFromNigeria.pdf). – vsz Aug 05 '15 at 06:10
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    Either that, or he is a time-traveler from 1860, when Austria did have a coast. – vsz Aug 05 '15 at 06:11
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    @vsz Hah, right. Although even then, it wouldn't make much sense to call it the west coast - it was the only coast :D And of course, most people would still just say "Croatia" (or whatever it was called back then), just like you wouldn't really call India "British coast" :D – Luaan Aug 05 '15 at 07:12
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    @vsz and it was in the south... – littleadv Aug 05 '15 at 07:12
  • Identity itself is very costly. Sharing your very personal information may help people to generate fake ID's, passport etc. They will just ask you to give details and authenticate it by giving the code/password you got in your email/phone. They might not be seeking your money, as your personal information is sufficient enough to create a new fake document on your name. – Zerotoinfinity Aug 05 '15 at 11:23
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    I actually assumed there was a major misreading/misremembering/mistyping mistake - and that Austria was supposed to be Australia. – DoubleDouble Aug 06 '15 at 17:43
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    @vsz 419 scammers are the best at conversion funnels. I was actually impressed when I learned that. – Wayne Werner Aug 06 '15 at 23:04
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    @vsz I doubt a 1860's time traveller (or any 1800' person for that matter) would have called it that way. They would have called something like "Dalmatian coast" or such. I guess. Interesting question. Much more interesting than OP's one, actually. – o0'. Aug 08 '15 at 14:00
  • I joined this site simply to upvote this answer. Well done :) – Shokhet Aug 09 '15 at 03:35
103

I wonder if your rational thinking is getting confused by the prospects of getting some deposit from that person?

He needs, amongst other things :

•online access username

•online access password

Ok, so you have 1000 in your account. They deposit 500 and you are happy. Then they take out all 1500 and you're done :) How can you not think it is a scam when you're giving them your login as well.

Here is an analogy. Some stranger asks you for keys of your home (while you're away) and tells you he will just go in place a gift inside your door and go away. Would you give him your keys and come home later expecting a gift to be there and nothing taken away?

Is it a scam if the person only wants to deposit into my account, not make a withdrawal?

Who is to tell?

P.S: Sorry, please don't mind the rest of this answer but from it could also be related to a new relationship that you are in. Going ahead with this might cause you a lot of emotional harm as well. You seemingly trust that person when there are obvious signs that you are being defrauded, possibly in the name of love.

Community
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Hanky Panky
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    A very good analogy. If someone wants to delivery something, they just need your address and can drop into your letter box. If they are asking for keys as well as codes to disable the burglar alarm, well it should definitely ring alarm bells :) – Dheer Aug 04 '15 at 08:00
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    But if you give them the codes to your burglar alarm, then it WON'T ring alarm bells. That's why they want the codes. :-) – Jay Aug 04 '15 at 13:12
  • Hmm... While I guess it's possible, I don't remember ever hearing of stuff like this related to a relationship someone was in. 99+% of the time, it seems to be someone in Nigeria, Cameroon, some Soviet breakaway country, etc. People who are actually in your country can be caught and punished, especially if it's someone you know. However, if you get scammed by someone in a country that couldn't care less, you're just out of luck (which is why scammers prefer those locations.) – reirab Aug 04 '15 at 14:15
  • @reirab that last part of the answer was just guesswork. – Hanky Panky Aug 04 '15 at 15:48
  • I understand; I'm just saying it's not likely to be correct. Bank transfers are very traceable, so someone who knows you and lives in the same country as you (especially if that country is the USA) is unlikely to try that unless they're just an idiot. – reirab Aug 04 '15 at 15:50
  • Suppose they don't have $1000 in their account. Suppose they have $0.01. What do they have to lose in that case? The person deposits $500, the account owner gets an e-mail or text in seconds letting them know, and then immediately pulls the money to somewhere the scammer doesn't have access. –  Aug 04 '15 at 21:14
  • Doesn't work that way, @michael. Banks put a "hold" on check deposits until the check has cleared completely for exactly this reason; they don't want to take the loss either. – keshlam Aug 05 '15 at 03:11
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    @reirab unfortunately, romance scams are a real thing. I'm not saying that's what this is, just that it's not as unlikely as you think. – jcm Aug 05 '15 at 03:55
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    @Michael Given that all the confidential information is asked for before the "deposit" there is no reason that the deposit will occur at all - they can just withdraw everything right away, possibly more until a credit line is reached, impersonate the victim to install or increase such a credit line in the first place, do almost anything on behalf of the victim – Hagen von Eitzen Aug 05 '15 at 05:37
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    @Hanky웃Panky: Even if the scammers had no means of withdrawing money themselves, they might arrange to have $500 deposited fraudulently via some traceable method, and then ask the victim to forward $400 of it somewhere else, keeping $100 as a commission. If the victim forwards $400, the scammer will get $400 and when the $500 deposit bounces the victim will be on the hook for at least $400 beyond his $100 "commission". If the victim doesn't forward anything, the scammer loses nothing and the victim would likely be on the hook for service charges beyond the $500. – supercat Aug 05 '15 at 16:50
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    @reirab Nope, that's a common scam. Someone from abroad enters an online relationship with you and then X happens and they need to borrow £100 then Y happens and they need 500...before you know it they need £5000 for a visa to come see you, then their car crashes on the way to the airport and they need another £5000 to fix it...etc etc – Tim B Aug 06 '15 at 12:44
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All that's needed to deposit into your account are two things

  • your account number
  • an international bank identifier

Bank identifier is could be SWIFT code, IBAN, or similar routing number. an ABA routing number a similar idendifier used by US banks.

It's a scam.

A variant scam deposits too much money in your account and then requests you repay the excess before canceling the deposit. If a stranger deposits money and then asks you to repay some. Do not do so. contact your bank instead.

Jasen
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    US Routing number is all that is needed, at least to put money in, from outside the US, as most all the non-US banks have US bank partners (typically in NY) who actually handle the transfer. My US Credit Union does not have a Swift code, but I have received lots of transfers from customers in Europe and elsewhere based purely on "routing number." All due to the partner US banks the foreign (origination) banks have. – chadbag Aug 04 '15 at 20:48
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    Even if he only wants these two things, it is also likely to be a scam.

    Criminals often use this for money-laundering. They have an illegal million. They deposit it in your account and make you give back half of the money. Then, the police comes after you and tells you that the million is stolen and you have to return all of it. You lost half a million.

    Never trust strangers giving you gifts.

     – Erel Segal-Halevi Aug 08 '15 at 19:06
  • Actually, IBAN alone is enough, it includes country, bank, and account. But you should not even give these out. There have been successful scams with a valid IBAN being the only piece of information. – Damon Aug 10 '15 at 11:57
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    In addition, a popular scam is to accidentally send you too much money, and request some of it back. You transfer some back, and then the bank finds out the initial deposit was fraudulent (such as a bounced cheque) and removes it, leaving you out of pocket. – NibblyPig Aug 10 '15 at 14:50
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It is a scam, other people have given lots of details why. But

online access password

Is ONLY of use to someone that wishes to steal your money. Just including it in the requested information is enough to make it clear it is a scam.

To deposit money into someone accounts only needs.

bank name (can be got from routing no)
bank address (can be got from routing no)
bank number (can be got from routing no)
person who is on the account
    their name
account no
routing no (called "sort code" in the UK)

And maybe (if the deposit is being pay by anyone that needs to report the payment to the government for income tax - at least in the UK)

  • DOB
  • SSN/NI

If the money is coming from a source that must report the payment for tax.

littleadv
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Ian
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    Why is this getting downvoted? – Ian Aug 04 '15 at 13:51
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    I haven't downvoted, but, as a guess, it might be that you say DOB/SSN might be required for depositing money. I can't think of any scenario under which that would be required, except maybe if you're at the bank wanting to make a deposit yourself and you don't have your account number handy. All you should normally need to give for someone to make a deposit into your account is the routing number (or international equivalent) and account number. You're right that that might be needed by an employer for tax reporting, but it isn't needed to make a deposit. – reirab Aug 04 '15 at 14:19
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    In the UK, the NI number (our version of SSN) is required if the deposit is being pay by anyone that needs to report the payment to our goverment for income tax. – Ian Aug 04 '15 at 14:44
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    Since the poster specified they are located in the US, I think the more relevant fact is that one does not need the SSN to deposit into a bank account in the US. If you're paying your employee a salary, then yes, you need their SSN, but not simply to make a deposit. – David Z Aug 04 '15 at 20:34
  • But wait... isn't knowing the routing number and account number also sufficient to drain money from one's account? That's all the info that is printed on some checks, yet checks are insecure enough that frauds have used it to drain accounts... –  Aug 04 '15 at 21:16
  • @Michael, yes at least in the UK, but if a fake direct debit is setup your bank MUST refund the money to you. – Ian Aug 04 '15 at 22:22
  • @Ian the one to actually pay would be the originating bank, they're liable for not checking that the initiated transaction is legit – littleadv Aug 05 '15 at 07:14
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    @Michael Some banks provide accountholders with a separate "deposit-only" account number that can be given out along with the routing number, for direct deposits without any risk of malicious withdrawals. – Dan Henderson Aug 05 '15 at 19:35
  • @DanHenderson Interesting, I hadn't heard of those. Thanks! –  Aug 06 '15 at 03:23
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Absolutely anyone who wants to put money into a stranger's account is a guaranteed scammer and most likely from Nigeria in reality. I know you probably felt like it was your lucky day but in fact it could have been your unluckiest day had you not asked on here, so good on you man. Whenever you're not sure about something just ask, that's what the internet is for, someone's always willing to help.

Matthew Read
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user30891
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    All of the people I know who actually talk to the scammers are actually old and naïve, rather than young and naïve. I think most young people (who are still old enough to have a bank account) understand that anyone asking for your bank account password is up to something bad. – reirab Aug 04 '15 at 13:32
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    Age is largely irrelevant... There are plenty of young, over-protected, over-sheltered kids who go to college without knowing how to balance a checkbook - not to mention that kids are more used to sharing everything online these days. To say that either is more/less likely to fall to these scams doesn't change the fact that either end of the age scale has victims. I know plenty of 20 somethings that don't know a dollar from a cassette tape and their parents aren't in a position to teach them. – WernerCD Aug 04 '15 at 14:33
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    In most countries, Donna is a female name. – JTP - Apologise to Monica Aug 04 '15 at 18:43
  • @JoeTaxpayer I was going to say the same thing.. should edit his/her answer to say "her" instead.. – NuWin Aug 04 '15 at 19:52
  • Sure I suppose I could have done it myself. – JTP - Apologise to Monica Aug 04 '15 at 20:10
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    "most likely from Nigeria in reality" -- actually even the scammers who claim to be from Nigeria often aren't really. – Steve Jessop Aug 05 '15 at 12:29
  • "Absolutely" is a bit too absolute. There are nice people out there in the world. That said, the odds are it's a scam, because they're asking for way too much information. – phyrfox Aug 05 '15 at 23:46
  • @reirab most of the people I know who talk to scammers are young and do that for fun. http://www.419eater.com/ ftw – Josef Aug 06 '15 at 08:24
  • Am I alone in finding the "most likely from Nigeria" bit extremely racist? – Dawood ibn Kareem Jul 13 '18 at 09:19
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Most answers to this question only address the issue of providing personal information to a scammer. But considering that a lot of questions without the personal information addition get closed as duplicates of this one, I would like to answer the question in the subject:

Why would a scammer deposit money in my account?

There are several criminal schemes which involve this.

  • Money laundering. The money comes from an illegal source. They send you money and ask you to transfer it to a different account. That way the money can no longer be traced back to the criminals. The criminals won't care if you keep the money, because they had no use for the dirty money anyway. However, the original owners and the police will care.
  • Advanced fee fraud. They bait you by promising you a lot of money. But then they find some excuses which require you to pay some money to them before this can happen (or to someone they claim to be someone else but actually is them). After you did that, you will never hear of them again.
Philipp
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  • Is it a scam if a stranger wants to do X to my account?
  • Yes. If anyone apart from your close family members want to do anything to your account, it's a scam. Or an extreme level of stupidity, you want to avoid both. Also, if it was them who said about west coast Austria, you can also make fun of them.
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    This answer is an overstatement. There are definitely cases where someone you don't trust completely can "do something" to your account, and it's okay. A quite common example is an employer making a direct deposit; you even give them the account number. (The scenario the OP describes is definitely a scam, as is any situation where someone asks for your password.) –  Aug 04 '15 at 08:37
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    Sometimes it may be even a bad idea to give this type of information to you close family members :O – NuWin Aug 04 '15 at 20:01
  • Don't trust your "close family members." One stole a house from me (legally, sadly), another tried to kill my children, and myself when I was younger, and the rest of them scammed each other to death (as far as I can tell, they're awfully hard to find). Do trust people you'd trust your life with, or at least people you trust don't have bad intentions (you should get to know them really good first). – phyrfox Aug 05 '15 at 23:44
  • @phyrfox Not to be paranoid but it is a scam tactic to "prime" a target by getting to know them (or faking it). They will talk about really personal stuff as soon as you meet them to speed up this process and to aid the perception that you really know them; this is also a tactic used by undercover law enforcement. – mchid Aug 06 '15 at 05:02
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No. It most probably is not a scam. It most probably is something much worse. In a scam, you may lose some money. In a money laundering operation, you may end up spending prison time.

Imagine saying to the judge: "I did not do all of these illegal transactions, it was a total stranger who only wanted to borrow my account. I am totally innocent".

I would guess that your account would be used when scamming other persons or when transfering illegal money. The money would go into your account, and then sent further. It would to all aspects look like you are doing the scams.

ghellquist
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    It's really all included in the term "scam", which is simply a scheme to dupe someone for fun and profit, but you're making a good point. – Vector Jan 20 '18 at 22:53