Sell on ebay, have your banking assets frozen

[tobyshitzu]

I sold an item a little while ago. Buyer Id registered in april,1 + for a similar purchase, 1 neg exchanged over a $2 virtual item. Search showed only 1 other item bid/won. So I was only a little worried about the $250 purchase, but relieved when they wanted to send certapay. Funds received, item shipped, never heard from buyer again.

Saturday afternoon I went to an ATM to make a withdrawl from the account the certapay payment went to, and only got a "inquire at your branch" message. First staffer insists over and over I'm putting in my pin wrong. Second staffer says they detected fraudulent access in my account (uh oh). Eventually by the time the fourth staff looks into it they say my account freezing is related to a recent email funds transfer involving suspected fraud.

They can tell me absolutely nothing about the problem as the person who can deal with it would be in at 3:30, but the branches here close at 3 on saturday! They offer to get my withdrawl I had tried to do ($100 from an account with near $10K in it)...disappear into the back for quite some time, the emerge to tell me since I'm involved with fraud they won't give me anything, my bank card and online access is cancelled. I call the general 1-800 # and the security 1-800 number to get useless csrs that can't help or provide any info either.

I look at what the buyer has been up to, and there is one more purchase...for a $1000 laptop, though that seller looks like a scammer and has same city location as my buyer. I contact the other seller of an item like mine, who has already been through this with his bank.

My buyers ebay registered phone number is a fax for a corporate office, the address the address for that company. The other seller has learned the certapay payments came from an account belonging to someone else, and they are now disputing "many" funds transfers as unauthorized account activity. So perhaps they have other ebay ids or are buying elsewhere. The items get shipped to the person at the company, who apparently is an employee there, and the other person claims they didn't send the money. The account holders bank is requesting the receivers' banks refund the money. The other sellers bank will not do that and has released the funds to him.

The other seller of course reported all of this to ebay, and describes the response as being "too bad contact law enforcement". The id is not naru. I have reported them to ebay today for fraudulent funds and invalid contact info. Second buyer this week i have reported for false contact info, the other being one who didn't pay for a couple of things and proceeded to buy towards 100 .01 feedback listings (ebay deleted some of the feedback but buyer not naru).

Hopefully Monday I can get access back to my money at the bank. A small certapay payment for an ebay item could really screw with someones life if this happens and account gets frozen at the wrong time. I use that account or all bill payments and moving money between accounts at other institutions, and have no access and can't even get a small withdrawl being at the branch in person (held the account for about 25 years).

Now that we've got seller stars ebay, do something about all the ids with false contact info on the site!!

[jakeeangel]

Holy crow!!! 😮 I'm so sorry Toby!!

This BS of not doing something to actually verify people is beyond ridiculous and infuriating. But eBay of course has absolutely no incentive to do anything about it. It doesn't affect them. So what. And if you leave by choice or forced into bankruptcy, they don't care. The next 10 people behind you will fill in nicely. They don't even seem to care whether those guys are scammers or not.

We have 900 million registered users. *stupid smug grin* Well ain't that ducky but how many are scammers in one way or another with tons of IDs???? fffttt

It's absolute, utter stupidity! X-(

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[katiusciav]

This BS of not doing something to actually verify people is beyond ridiculous and infuriating.

tell me about it. they have all kinds of buyer protection policies, but when it comes to protecting sellers-what do they have??? next to nothing. a buyer can come into the world of ebay and scam so damn easily, it ain't funny. but its up to the sellers to 'be careful' who they sell to. gimme a break. fine, there's SOME we can spot, but we can't spot them all, or we can't see them all coming. so we cancel all under 10 or 20 feedback scorers, they'll figure it out, get their feedback up to 50+ and start scamming there....where's there's a will, there's a way...WAKE UP EBAY-START TAKING SOME RESPONSIBILITY YOURSELVES AS A REPUTABLE COMPANY AND START PREVENTING FRAUD-AND STOP SHOVING IT ONTO TO US DEFENSELESS SELLERS.
the thought of anyone being able to open an account and buy on ebay with so much as an email address is positively scary stuff. i mean, you even need a drivers license to rent a d**m 3.99 movie nowadays!!!
is ebay taking a moral stand against fraud to protect their sellers (and yes, their money makers)? not in my opinion...

[americanchateau]

toby,

Soryy this happened to you. Sounds terrible! Have you tried to talk to the branch manager at your home branch? I find that all the counter people are totally useless but when you get to go to the office of the manager they can usually help you out. Explain your history with her bank and ask her why all your money is tied up.... Hope you can get this resolved soon.

[tip-top.deal]

Scary stuff indeed! Can you inform me, or may-be others, what *certapay* is all about. Is it some sort of M/O or cashiers check, issue by a bank or by an individual? Does it come from the US or International?
Was your deposit through a banking machine or at the banks counter? If it was at the counter, the bank has some responsibility in verifying the authenticity or legality! I had once a case with a US personal check when I asked the bank teller to verify, after one full month, if the funds had cleared. Teller called US bank and answer was: yes account has sufficient funds - nothing to worry about. Informed buyer that item was shipped and next day check bounced. I immediately informed the bank manager - and they credited my account.
Hope that you were able to clear-up that mess in the mean-time!

[zarzuella]

Certapay is the interac electronic funds transfer service all the big banks use:

http://www.certapay.com/en/personalPayments/FAQs.html

That is one scary story.

Ann

[tobyshitzu]

Holy cow am I mad now!!!!!!

Just back from the bank, my "home" branch. Account to remain completely frozen, almost $10,000.


First person I dealt with had no idea what certapay is. Spent a lot of time talking to someone elsewhere by phone. Apparently none of them have any idea what this is all about.

In comes the top person there at this time, not "the" manager, #2 I believe. Apparently the branch I was in Saturday, who told me they could do nothing but I could have this resolved going to any branch at any time Monday intiated some sort of investigation. Since they have the inforamtion related to this, and were now closed, i'm out of luck.

The idiot keeps saying its for "my protection" in case soemone has my account #. I keep asking him if he has any idea how certapay works by email. He says yes. I say its as good as cash, he says "yes". I say, how could someone possbily have my accoutn #...he says "its for your protection" around and around, over and over. I accuse its accuse its the bank wanting to protect itself thinking Im onvovle din some sort fo ...scam "its for your protection"

more contact with the other seller, who has filed a complaint with the RCMP (even though he didn't lose any money). We've both tried calling the buyer and just get voicemail at his work...so I got the switchboard to put me through to a sueprvisor in his dept.

The buyer is an IT engineer, worked there for several years, in his mid 30s. I of course informed them the company address and phone is invovled in some sort of scam.

Quite certain the third seller account involved who lsited several laptops with stock pics(only sold teh one my buyer bought) is the smae person trying to scam from teh sell side. Lots of feedback, but it hadn't been used in 3 years until recently.

[tobyshitzu]

Oh, the other thing is the other seller who I've been in touch with tried to send money from certapay. It wouldn't work, and hes been told hes permanently barred from using the service because he had involvement in the fraud. So that will be the same for me and any other who received money from this idiot.

[for_baby_and_you]

O.... MY.... GOD....

This is so scary.... Toby I'm so sorry it happened to you... but you know what... the worst part of this story is the way your bank treats you... if this is all for your protection because somebody can know your account number why not to open a new account and move the money there? This is your money they can't do it !!!
What bank is it?

[zarzuella]

Time to talk to the press.

[tobyshitzu]

TDcanadatrust "voted best in service 3 years in a row" (so the posters say)

[whoscloset]

Wow. I can't believe this one. Have you spoken to the Branch Manager?

[tobyshitzu]

No, after hearing how easy the other guy got it resolved at his bank, I figured if I returned on Monday as instructed it would be equally as easy. I was there early evening so manager not there. I had emailed the branch manager of the first branch I was in Saturday, no response. I'm supposed to call them tomorrow.

The other seller involved had a talk with the supervisor at the buyers place of employment too, and we've now received email from their ethics and compliance dept that they have started an investigation and asking for any updates we get.

[tobyshitzu]

The person whos account the money actually came out of is female with name of same ethnicity, so we assume probably the girlfriend of the guy who receives the stuff at work.

[tobyshitzu]

It turns out it was the acting branch manager as the real one has email auto reply they are gone for a month.

[pender_island_trading]

toby - that sucks!

banks are weird these days though.

i went to my local branch last week to make a cash withdrawal (to have my roof replaced - not that the reason I wanted my money was really any of their business!) and they refused my request as i hadn't given them 48 hours notice of my intent. WTF!

i had to take a partial withdrawal, which my contractor wasn't really very happy about, and left shaking my head that although they have many, many thousands of my dollars, i couldn't even take 3 grand out without prior permission.

sorry to hijack your thread - just got me riled again about the "convenience" of today's banks and their service.

kath

[tobyshitzu]

I have access to my bank account and the certapay payment cannot be reversed. I called my bank back, who again asked me what the email transfer was about, and asked ME if I have to send it back. Apparently my bank still knows absolutely nothing about what happened other then a note got put on my account about that payment.

When the other seller talked to his bank, BNS, they told him what had happened. Him telling me is the only way myself or anyone I've dealt with at my bank know.

I've been assured I am not restricted from using certapay (granted, hard to trust anything they say now)

[tobyshitzu]

Ebay didn't bother to naru the id who has a fax for a phone number and been reported by at least two experienced sellers for fraud.

[tobyshitzu]

I requested TD provide me with the senior management officer (person above branch manager) and told them I would make complaints there and to the FDIC.

I received a call from my branch profusely apologizing for what has gone on (first time through all of this anyone has done that). Now they've called back apologizing again, indicating they have an apology letter and gift certificate they will be sending me.

[whoscloset]

Finally! I'm glad it has worked out.