Yes they are verifying bank accounts, for some people. Part of this is because of the new managed payments which means eBay gets the fees, not PayPal. I don't know if I care, but that's how they changed it.

I had to verify my business account but for some reason my personal they didn't require all kinds of data. I suppose it depends on what information they already have for someone. But, with the IRS and the income reporting laws, they have to make sure that we are really who we say we are.

So good news: https://community.ebay.com/t5/Payments/A-new-way-to-verify-your-bank-account-for-managed-payments/m-p/31320264

You can verify your bank account using microdeposits confirmation.

I think someone else wrote this but I'm not sure if it was specific. When eBay writes the message should say your name, (as in my case "Hello Pete") not something like member or a generic address. That and easy enough,

never follow a link in an email

, even if you trust it. Go to your account, hotel, CC, eBay, PayPal, whatever and they should be requesting the same data, but you are getting there through your own secure login, not some phishing email or a potential scam.