I know this info has been posted here before, but I was at least half tempted to fall for this, so I'm posting it in case anyone else might get fooled.
I have been doing a little bit of eBaying lately, & when I got an email last week about needing to update some of my acct. info, I sensed a little "red flag" & decided to ignore the email.
yesterday I got another very official looking email telling me my account was suspended until I got my account straightened out. I have established myself on ebay only to a slight degree, but I didn't want to tarnish my "verified" status their, so I was again tempted. The link provided failed to successfully arrive at an account update page. I was more worried about my actual account status at this point, & less suspicious of the true motives of the sender.
Today I got another email that had a link that took me to an address that contained the name ebay, but it followed some other word, instead of being the first 4 characters of the URL. (This is the best proof of fraud to remember) It did go to a very official looking account update page & I began to enter my ebay username & password. When it got to asking for the bank account routing number, followed by credit card number I snapped to my senses.
First I checked the www.ebay.com site & found a good book to bid on to test my "suspended" account... it worked fine. Then I went to the fraud reporting link & forwarded them the email. I recieved a quick reply that this was indeed one of the "spoof" emails that is plaquing ebay users & was not legit.
I opened the source code for the email, pasted into wordpad & saved as an html file to upload to my site so I could post the fradulent email complete with logo graphics & links as it appeared in my inbox...
The link now goes to a dead end, (maybe partly because of my report )but earlier today, it was a very convincing scam that I almost fell for
[ November 05, 2003, 04:44 AM: Message edited by: Doug Allan ]
Posted by Ian Stewart-Koster (Member # 3500) on :
Thanks Doug. It always helps others to have some forewarning. I hate the scams that try to sell you your own business name URL with a slight modification to the one you use, and a letter saying 'someone else is trying to register.....but you can have it first if you send $$$' Best wishes
Posted by Fred Weiss (Member # 3662) on :
I got a similar one recently on two different occasions appearing to be from PayPal. When I clicked on the appropriate link it took me to a very convincing web page asking me to fill in current credit card information.
Since I had never used or registered to use PayPal I smelled a rat and clicked off. Posted by PKing (Member # 337) on :
I have purchased(1)item from a company using the E-BAY website for its sale. Going DIRECTLY to the sellers e-mail and purchasing via MONEY ORDER got me the item I was looking for bypassed any"taking the easy way out get ready for a scam" senerio out of the picture.
Hope this helps
Posted by Mike Pipes (Member # 1573) on :
If you read the security statements while you are signing up for these services, you will notice they have a line stating they will NEVER ask you for your username and password. Any email that asks for this information should be reported.
It's especially important to maintain the security of your username and password with eBay as they now REQUIRE you to give them a credit card number and bank account information upon sign-up, for verification.
Posted by Brian Diver (Member # 1552) on :
Thanks Doug,
I wonder if I'm getting the same thing from a "Microsoft" wannabe too? I get about 3 "security updates" & "Critical patches" a day with a very official page just like you've shown.
Scammers should be taken out an beat with a stick!
Doug, are you sending me some sand? A bucket a week is all I ask and soon I'll have my own beach Posted by Curtis hammond (Member # 2170) on :
I got an email too concerning my PayPal account via ebay.
Since I never use paypal for any reason I knew it was a fraud.
Good try theeves..... it dint work ..
Posted by Mark Sheflo (Member # 3608) on :
Whenever I get an e-mail like this I look for the small details that can tell you its just not right. In this case I noticed two thing right away.
1. The copyright at the bottom is date 2002, should be 2003.
2. eBay Dpt. of Public Relationship??? If eBay were to actually send out requests like this thay wouldn't come from the PR department.
Also, who abbreviates department like that anyway?
Mark
Posted by Rick Beisiegel (Member # 3723) on :
Somehow got doubled...
[ November 06, 2003, 08:36 AM: Message edited by: Rick Beisiegel ]
Posted by Rick Beisiegel (Member # 3723) on :
Doug
Thanks for the heads up. I too am an Ebay user, but usually ignore any emails from them except for the "policy change" ones. Enjoy your day!
![[FYI]](graemlins/fyi.gif)
![[Dunno]](graemlins/dunno.gif)
)but earlier today, it was a very convincing scam that I almost fell for ![[Frown]](frown.gif)
![[Mad]](mad.gif)
![[Wink]](wink.gif)