Another Word Of Caution

[Delbert]

I wasn't certain where this should be posted, but, it does have to do with bad people on the net.

 

Yesterday, I received an e mail purported to have come through e bay inquiring about the status of their item I sold in an auction. The writer said he had paid for the item, but, it still has not arrived and I should inform him immediately what I intend to do or he would give me a negative feedback and report me to E Bay.

 

There was a link to the auction and I clicked on it to see what the item was. It was for a television set sold by someone with an ID I did not recognize and sold to some other person whose ID I did not recognize. The auction ended in February of 2005!!

 

I was immediately suspicious and forwarded to entire e mail to spoof@ebay.com.

 

Today, E Bay informed me of the following:

 

"Hello,

 

Thank you for writing to eBay regarding the email you received.

 

We reviewed your report and found that although the message you received

was made to appear as if it had been sent by an eBay user, it was not.

Generally, individuals send messages of this nature hoping that the

recipient will respond and reveal his or her return email address. These

individuals will then use the email addresses they obtain to send

unsolicited offers to buy or sell items outside of eBay."

 

I wanted to post to let others know there are more than just phishing schemes occurring using E Bay and Paypal. There are people out there using this scheme to verify e mail addresses to add you to spam lists as well, so use caution. You can always verify whether a message came through E Bay by going to MY EBAY by logging in and checking your messages there. If it came from E Bay, it will also appear in "My Messages" within My E Bay.

 

Cheers,

Delbert

[heavyharmonies]

I wasn't certain where this should be posted, but, it does have to do with bad people on the net.

 

Yesterday, I received an e mail purported to have come through e bay inquiring about the status of their item I sold in an auction.  The writer said he had paid for the item, but, it still has not arrived and I should inform him immediately what I intend to do or he would give me a negative feedback and report me to E Bay.

 

There was a link to the auction and I clicked on it to see what the item was.  It was for a television set sold by someone with an ID I did not recognize and sold to some other person whose ID I did not recognize.  The auction ended in February of 2005!!

 

I was immediately suspicious and forwarded to entire e mail to spoof@ebay.com.

 

Today, E Bay informed me of the following:

 

"Hello,

 

Thank you for writing to eBay regarding the email you received.

 

We reviewed your report and found that although the message you received

was made to appear as if it had been sent by an eBay user, it was not.

Generally, individuals send messages of this nature hoping that the

recipient will respond and reveal his or her return email address. These

individuals will then use the email addresses they obtain to send

unsolicited offers to buy or sell items outside of eBay."

 

I wanted to post to let others know there are more than just phishing schemes occurring using E Bay and Paypal.  There are people out there using this scheme to verify e mail addresses to add you to spam lists as well, so use caution.  You can always verify whether a message came through E Bay by going to MY EBAY by logging in and checking your messages there.  If it came from E Bay, it will also appear in "My Messages" within My E Bay.

 

Cheers,

Delbert

 

 

Yep. I've been getting bunches of those too. The phishers and scammers are coming out of the woodwork. There are also variations on this that go like the following:

 

1. (when you are selling a large-ticket item, in my case electronics or musical instruments). Email comes from a prospective bidder offering to buy the item outright, usually for more than what you are asking. It's usually from a 0-feedback bidder overseas, most frequently in the UK. They offer to send you a certified check for a huge amount and have you send the balance to their "agent" and give you some extra for your trouble. The problem is that the certified checks are bogus. Buy the time it is discovered, you've already sent the merchandise and the cash, and are out both. NEVER do 3rd-party transactions.

 

2. (when you're an underbidder on a fairly expensive item). You receive what appears to be a valid second-chance offer to buy the item. While second-chance offers do exist, ALWAYS go back to Ebay and contact the seller directly to make sure that they are indeed making the offer. 99% of the time it is a scammer doing a "Contact Ebay Member" representing themselves to be the seller. The last bogus one I received was for an item that I had bid on where I was the 5th underbidder, not even the 1st underbidder.

 

Be VERY careful.

 

-Dan

[Delbert]

Just to update everyone.....some more interesting information about these spoof e mails.....

 

If you get an email to your registered eBay email address that

looks like it's from eBay or another eBay member asking a question,

check My Messages first. If it's not there, it's a fake email.

 

and even more importantly.......

 

Many of these fake emails contain a keystroke virus. If you clicked on

any of the links in the email, you may have exposed your computer to

this virus.

 

If you have already done so, you should seek out a virus

scanner program to use on your system. I have included a few links below

to get you started in this effort:

 

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/...ts/default.mspx

http://vil.mcafee.com/default.asp?

http://www.f-secure.com

http://www.cnet.com

http://securityresponse.symantec.com

http://netsecurity.about.com/b/a/013754.htm

http://www.trendmicro.com/en/home/us/enterprise.htm

 

As always, it's a good idea to keep your virus scanner up to date with

the most recent virus definitions. If you do not have a virus scanner,

you can run a free virus scan on your computer at:

 

http://housecall.antivirus.com

 

There's always someone doing something out there to try and screw up the works!!!!

[T-BONE]

This goes along with the thread I started a few weeks back as well. I have recieved many e-mails like this over the last 5 years, but I must say say, that the last 3-4 months have been equaled to what I've recieved over the 5 years. They're really pouring it on...

[T-BONE]

I had a Newbie contact me about 3 weeks ago regarding a guitar I had purchased from another seller. He did so going through an auction for a pair of Subs I was selling. He asked for my e-mail so he could tell me something. I found this suspicious, so I logged on to eBay and responded, but blocked my e-mail addy. I asked him why he wanted to talk to me. He responded back asking for my e-mail addy again. I scolded him telling him it's none of his business what I buy on eBay and he has no reason to contact me. I notified eBay of this person.

 

A few days later, another freshly registered Newbie outbids everyone and wins my auction and I cannot get ahold of the buyer. No responses, false contact info, disconnected phone. I also reported this to ebay.

 

I have a funny feeling that this is the same person that wanted my e-mail addy to begin with and this was the only way they could get it....by winning my auction.

 

eBay responded to me with a generated e-mail stating where I can get my listing fees back and all that, but now I'm more worried about my address, name, e-mail and other contact onfo that this scammer may have.