Am I being scammed? (1 Viewer)

[Wils]

Hi, I live in the UK and I'm trying to buy some poker chips from a shop in Spain. They've told me that they need my "national identity document number" as it's necessary for the invoice, "and the passage through customs".

I've googled it and all I can see is that they might be asking for my NI number, which I'm pretty certain I've never had to give out before, and have been told not to give it out unless necessary.

So - has anyone else in the UK bought *anything* from the EU recently? Were you asked for your national identity document number? Did they mean NI number? Did you give it?

Seriously want some new chipes but not at the cost of my identity being stolen lol.

 

[Eriks]

Can’t say but that does sound weird. I’ve been asked to state id number when shipping outside of EU but never receiving

 

[Bill_Man618]

Seems sketch as hell to me. I'ver had chips shipped to me internationally and also shipped internationally and haven't ever heard of that. My rule of thumb is if someone asks me for my social I ask them to tell me the reason they need it and the purposes they will use to for. If your national ID is like a social this would be a very firm no from me unless they could provide me with something that explained why they needed it. For this I'd ask them to reference the U.S (intert your country here) law that requires that and read it myself. FWIW I've never heard of this happening in my 3 years here.

 

[sheikh617]

So the only experience I have with something similar is when I had chips coming back from Gear. Even thought it was a "service job" and not a chip purchase, when customs received my package and saw the value they made me file some kind of homeland security BS for importer's and I had to give them all sorts of personal info to get my package released. It was hella frustrating and quite honestly seemed like horse shit and just a way for the US to dig it's hands in our pockets like it always does.

 

[Wils]

For reference, the online merchant requesting it is articulosdepoker.com - I'm aware this is probably fine and just an example of BREXIT fucking me over, but even so it's not something I can just hand wave away.

 

[BGinGA]

Just provide them a fictitious number, like 123-45-6789. Works for me every time.

 

[Thomacetti]

Addy, phone number & e-mail should be sufficient to ship stuff anywhere in the world...be aware

 

[Silver_Fiend]

Like BG said, give them a fake number.

 

[Wils]

Thanks all. I spoke to the seller and worked something out. The chips arrived today (5 working days after being ordered, so that was superfast considering they were coming from Spain).

After a shaky start (my first EU purchase since the f*ck up that was Brexit probably didn't help), I'm very happy with the service and the chips.

Would recommend.

 

[Easylife]

Everyone in Spain has a national ID card and it's probably that number that they are referring to so it's probably a standard box to fill in on their forms as I think it is required for tax purposes, just doesn't help if you're not from there and don't have one