I think you guys are making it way too complicated... It's a common scam (in Europe) where you find somebody who sells something online, that only works with bank transfer (second hand stuff or a trader that does not take credit cards). You tell him you seriously want to buy his EUR 100 cucko clock but you have a new bank and as you are not in the same country, you want to do a test transfer first to see how much money the bank is keeping as a fee for a cross border transaction (IBAN is free but for example some French and Greek banks still charge a fee). You tell him to look for the two deposits and he will tell you.