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Topic: More eBay Scams & My Personal eBay Nightmare |
Doug Beaumier
From:
Northampton, MA
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Posted 2 Jan 2006 5:58 pm |
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A new wrinkle in an old scam?
This one is a scam against eBay Sellers. If you run auctions on eBay, beware of emails from prospective buyers that come to you through the eBay mail system… Fake ones that look exactly like standard eBay system emails.
Here is a actual email that I received:
"Hello, I have bid on your item, can you please contact me and tell me how much is shipping to zip code 92110? Would you ship to England? Cheers, Colin."
This email looked exactly like the standard eBay format email. So an unsuspecting seller would attempt to answer this email. He would click on the RESPOND button that appears in the eBay emails, and that would take him to the eBay Sign-in page (the same page that we have all seen many times)… but it’s another fake page. When the seller “signs in” to this bogus page he is actually giving his password to some filthy rat who immediately signs onto the seller’s account… and changes the password so the seller can no longer access his own account. It’s identity theft.
After the rat takes over the account he will list bunch of phony auctions, buy-it-nows really cheap for items he does not have. The payments will be redirected to his bank account because he has changed the seller’s settings. So he uses the seller’s good name and the seller’s excellent feedback to rip off others.
Ebay requires users to sign in periodically for security reasons, so a new seller may think nothing of having to sign in. Also, sellers are usually eager to answer all questions while they are running active auctions. The solution, as mentioned here before, is to Not respond to any such emails. Delete them, open your browser and type in ebay.com sign in, go to My eBay and check for any new messages. If the message is not there, the email you received is fake. It’s a good idea to forward the bogus emails to ebay at spoof@ebay.com Between eBay and Paypal I get about 5 phony emails a Day!
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MY EBAY NIGHTMARE:
The reason I’m so careful about this: I was suckered into something like this a few months ago. After completing a number of auctions selling amps and guitars, I received an “email” from eBay asking me if I wanted to become a Power Seller, Silver Level. Sure, I responded, got the sign in page, signed in, … and suddenly I could not get into my account. Nothing worked. I could Not sign in to eBay. I thought it was just a connection problem.
The next morning I checked my email and I had about 40 emails from all over the world… Denmark, Germany, etc… asking me how I could sell the ipods so cheap!! I looked at my Seller Page and there was a long list of digital cameras, ipods, etc… about 50 auctions listed under My name. Some were buy-it-nows that had already been purchased. I tried to delete the auctions, but I could Not get into my account. I had no control over it. It was maddening.
These auctions were phony of course. The rat had posted auctions for items he did not have, and he posted them at ridiculously Low buy-it-now prices, hoping to rake in some quick bucks using my account, using my 100% positive feedback. Naturally buyers would trust such a “positive feedback” seller and would jump at the bargains.
I immediately contacted eBay Live Help (on line) and told them about it. They called me on the phone to verify things. Ebay deleted all of the auctions, gave me a temporary password, I was able to regain control of my account, choose a new password, and all ended well! The following morning a couple more “residual” auctions for digital cameras appeared and I deleted them.
The next time I listed some auctions I noticed that my settings had all been changed and I had to reset everything. The rat had redirected the Paypal payments to a Yahoo disposable email address. The guy was in England.
I learned a valuable lesson. There are people out there in the world who spend day and night thinking of new ways to rip off honest people. What kind of an Ahole would do that? But there are a lot of them out there. I get 5 phony emails a day, either Paypal or eBay. The eBay rep who called me told me not to get too upset about it… she said these thefts happen all day long 24 hours a day! Their staff deals with this constantly.
Anyway, that’s my rant for the day, sorry if I’m rehashing an old topic. Happy New Year!
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My Site | My SteelTab
[This message was edited by Doug Beaumier on 02 January 2006 at 06:03 PM.] |
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Don Blood
From:
Illinois, USA
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Posted 2 Jan 2006 7:19 pm
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Doug,
Thanks for the heads up. I've had my share of the fake ebay and paypal emails myself, but I haven't had that one, and I can see why it would be easy to fall for it.
If I question any email, I right click on the subject line, go down to properties, and click on detail tab, then message source. Then you can see it it came from ebay.com or some hotmail account. |
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Wiz Feinberg
From:
Mid-Michigan, USA
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Posted 2 Jan 2006 10:47 pm
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Doug;
Thanks on behalf of the entire membership of the SGF, and all who visit us, for posting your experiences with eBay ID thieves, and for exposing their MO.
As I have said before, paranoia is thinking that they are out to get you; Internet prudence is knowing that they are out to get you!
Wiz |
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Mark van Allen
From:
Watkinsville, Ga. USA
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Posted 3 Jan 2006 12:20 am
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Doug, that's the exact scam I was posting about here: http://steelguitarforum.com/Forum12/HTML/002758.html
I hadn't seen that "question from an ebay user" one before, and like you I was amazed at the quality of the bogus page copies. Luckily I checked before logging in to the fake ebay page. I noticed the url started with "htp/" instead of "htps//".
It's sad we have to be so careful anymore... |
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Bill Mayville
From:
Las Vegas Nevada * R.I.P.
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Posted 3 Jan 2006 12:43 am
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Hi all
In a case like this, the Federal Trade Commission says....Forward it to
Spam@uce.gov
Bill (steelinlasvegas@cox.net
The newbie website www.steelguitarlasvegas.com |
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Bobby D. Hunter
From:
USA
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Posted 3 Jan 2006 9:10 am
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It is almost certainly a waste of time to forward anything to that email account at .gov.
If you want to make a dent in spam and scam email I recommend that you join SpamCop, as a reporting member (free).
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Bobby D. Hunter
Security for SGF
Hunting down Slimeball Game
Reporting member of SpamCop
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Gene Jones
From:
Oklahoma City, OK USA, (deceased)
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Posted 3 Jan 2006 9:36 am
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I receive those scam e-mails on a regular basis.....however, I have never bought or sold anything on e-bay, and have never had an account.
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www.genejones.com
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