Offer to send me 5000 and then send 4000 to his daughter. I think this is a scam. Is it?

Question

My question is to find out if I'm being scammed.

This guy says he's from California (area code 909) and we met at an online dating site. Says he has a daughter in TX, 30 yr old.

He is asking if he could do a "wire transfer" to my account from his account; attaching my account to his checking account.

He says he's going to transfer 5000 to my account. I'm to keep a thousand and send his daughter the rest by account transfer. I should also buy a few things for her and send them to her.

I'm feeling like this is a scam as he asked me for my online bank account user ID and password and security code.

He says he is on a boat for some kind of training and won't be back for 12 days. This was 2 weeks ago and I was like then your daughter can wait 'till you get back.

So is this a scam? It's smelling like one. I keep saying to just use my routing number and account number but he says it has be done with my user id, password, and security code.

Answer 1

Yes, it is a scam. The $5000 deposit to your account will bounce and you will be out whatever you sent. Also, no one should ask for your password.

Answer 2

That has got to be one of the scammiest scams that has ever scammed. Do not continue interacting with this person unless you really, really want to get ripped off.

You need to stop and ask yourself a few questions:

1. Why would he (or anyone) possibly need you to relay money like this for anything even remotely legitimate?
2. Why would they pay you $1000 for something that (even if it weren't a scam) represents a fairly trivial amount of work on your part?
3. Why would they need your banking login info?

The answer to all three of these is they wouldn't. No one who isn't either a scammer or otherwise seriously sketchy is going to ask someone that they met over the internet and barely know to transfer money for them. And they certainly aren't going to pay them $1000 for less than an hour's work. And they really, really aren't going to ask for your login info.

Banking is deliberately designed so that people can make payments and purchases without revealing that information. If they're given that info, then they aren't setting something up for you, they are you. You might eventually get your account back, but likely not before it's been drained of everything they can get their hands on. Even if that didn't happen, the money you'd receive stands an excellent chance of being stolen or procured through criminal activity. Meaning that you could have the police paying you a visit for your role in laundering money.

The best case scenario for this is that you receive $5k, send off $4k, and then find that the initial deposit has been reversed, leaving you "only" $4k in the hole. That's if you're very, very lucky.

As pretty much every bank will tell you, don't give out your login info. Don't give it to your friends, don't give it to your family, don't give it to someone claiming to be a bank employee, don't give it to anyone, period.

Answer 3

Yes, it's a scam. If he can wire money to your account, he can wire money to his daughter's account. Besides, wire transfers don't need your login name or password, as you rightly noted.

This is a phishing scam dressed up as a romance scam, presenting as a kind of unexpected-money scam.

Answer 4

This is a scam. After getting the user ID and password, he will clean up your account or use it for illegal activities.

There is no money for you. Don't share your account number.

Answer 5

A few points to consider:

• You don't need someone's username and password to send them money. I transfer money to people all the time without knowing their username and password, or even necessarily what bank they use. That's what things like Zelle and checks are for.
• You don't need to link accounts to send people money. My account isn't linked to anyone else's account and I'm still able to send people money just fine.
• If he can wire money to you, he can wire money to her. What does he need you for?
• If he can contact you, he can contact his bank too. The whole "I'm on a ship" thing doesn't really work.
• What's he giving you the $1000 for?
• Why can't his daughter "buy a few things" herself? Or, for that matter, why can't he do it himself? Why do you need to do it?

In short, there's no plausible reason that he needs you for any portion of this transaction, and even if he did need you the way he wants to do it makes no sense.

It is highly likely that he intends to either empty your account once he has the username and password or to use your account to facilitate money laundering.