I re-read the e-mail. Surprise!! The seller has a hot link to his eBay Auctions.
So, full headers and I send it off to eBay, asking them to tell this seller to stop this practice.
God, what I wouldn't do for a mallet of knowledge.
The response:
"Thank you for contacting me regarding this unsolicited email message you
have received.
The email you received was sent from an email address that is not in our
database of registered eBay users.
The sender may have obtained your email address from another source, or
the sender is registered at eBay under another email address which we
can not identify.
You may want to send a report of the SPAM to the ISP of the sender. SPAM
is usually considered as an abuse of the terms of ISP's. Often a report
sent to the ISP will resolve this kind of problem. To do this, look at
the senders email address and substitute the word postmaster in place of
the name in front of the @ symbol. For example, if the SPAM was sent
from [email protected], you would send your report to
[email protected].
If you decide to report this to the ISP, please forward them the entire
email, including full headers, along with a short note indicating the
email was unsolicited. Your input will help stop further instances of
this SPAM.
I hope this helps you out, please write back if you need any further
assistance.
Regards,
XXXXXXXX
eBay Customer Support"
Now, I did mention this guy had hotlinked to his eBay auctions in the spam, right?
I recheck everything, and i mean EVERYTHING. The spam and the EOA has the same @whateveritis.com.
I am led to one of two conclusions in this:
1. Safeharbor has sunk to a new low. They are now actively allowing spam to flourish despite the edvidence is literraly in front of them.
2. I need new glasses. And a bigger monitor.
P.S. They sent me a survey to allow me to grade the handling of this situation. Guess I know what my responses will be.
:\\\"Crystalline Sliver cannot be the target of spells or abilities.
posted on September 8, 2000 04:16:04 AM
Truly weird - particularly as, when I ran into this situation a month or so ago, SH did the NARU thing double-quick, no problems, thank you very much for bringing this to our attention.
Maybe you need to write SH in words of one syllable....
posted on September 8, 2000 05:46:25 AM
help me!!! I tried to report something like this and they want the hidden headers which I do not know how to find on netscape.....any netscape cops out there??? Help.....
posted on September 8, 2000 05:54:37 AMjtw74: Bring up the Netscape email program. Click on View, then click on Headers, then click on All.
Crystalline_Sliver: You didn't see the link to his auctions until you reread the email. Did you point it out when you forwarded it, for the person on the receiving end?
posted on September 8, 2000 10:27:38 AM
I think there's another possibility that bears consideration, and might explain Safe Harbor's lack of action. If the "whateveritwas.com" was a widely available domain, there IS a possibility that the sender was NOT the seller whose auction listings URL was listed in the email. If Ebay can't verify that they're the same person, I don't know that they can justifiably suspend the seller named in the email. I mean, if a dishonest seller found a competitor with the same domain as one of his email accounts which was NOT his registered Ebay account, he could make up an email with that seller's auctions and send it out to other Ebay users, in hopes that someone would report the other person for spamming and get him suspended, thereby eliminating the competition. Not saying that this is likely or probable, but it is possible.
Edited because } and ] are not interchangeable.
[ edited by pickersangel on Sep 8, 2000 12:54 PM ]
posted on September 8, 2000 10:43:12 AM
When I report spam of this type, I use a subject: "spammed auction #4567890x",
and the beginning of my mail to safeharbor says "the link in this email points to auction #4567890x".
I think they did not notice that the spam was for an auction.
posted on September 8, 2000 10:52:35 AM
Another way to hide behind other sellers email addy's is to add their email addy in your spam or in their auctions with meta tags putting the meta tags in white this way it does not show up where anyone can find it. The way to find it is to go to view source of someones auctions change the color to black or dark color and you will find the white print there. You than can take that info, explain how it's done to eBay folks, cut and paste both the original page and how you did it than they have the evidence on the person.
This way this poor unsuspecting person is getting accused of spamming folks when he isn't aware and not doing it.
So either this person is really spamming thru his auctions or someone is using his email and auction # address to have a link going there making it look like that seller is doing it.
[ edited by guyuellas on Sep 8, 2000 10:53 AM ]
posted on September 8, 2000 12:29:33 PMHCQ: Do you have the latest book on ebay-onics? I need one badly.
Glenda: First instinct I have in this case where I get my "junk" mail is hit the "Report Junk Mail" link provided to me in my service, then Spam Cop, then the abuse and postmaster stuff if needed if Spam Cop fails.
I re-read it, cause I read the first 10 lines, and only then I realized it was from that eBay seller. The link was quite a ways down in the body of the e-mail.
sg52: Try, try again...this is my 2nd time I'm complaining to Safeharbor about this.
One more thing...In the subject line, for the spam, he only uses his first name, while in his EOA, he uses his whole name. Weird...
:\\\"Crystalline Sliver cannot be the target of spells or abilities.
posted on September 8, 2000 01:04:34 PM
Did you compare the expanded headers of the EOA to the expanded headers for the spam? If there are big discrepancies, I'd question whether they came from the same person. I never thought about the fact that the easiest way to make it look like your seller was spamming is for the sender to simply change the user info in his email proggy before sending the spam, e.g. change the name, email and reply to addresses to those of his "victim", send the spam, then change everything back to the sender's actual info. Not all ISP's refuse to relay messages showing other domains as the source.
Did you by chance "innocently" write the seller, mentioning his email and that you don't remember asking him to add you to his mailing list? If he writes back wondering what email, maybe there's more to this than meets the eye.
posted on September 8, 2000 01:14:08 PM
I agree with pickersangel. I would forward the e-mail to the seller at their registered Ebay address and pretend to ask a question about one of his current auctions.
His response will let you know if this is really from him or not. I just think it would be a shame for a seller to be suspended when there is a possibility that this may be work of a competitor.
posted on September 8, 2000 01:17:22 PMC_s - If I new "ebayonics" well enough to make SH's responses predictable, I'd write a book and sell it. Probably would be banned by ebay though
Here's the text of my emails to SH:
Subject: SPAM by Ebay Seller.
I've received several emails from this seller over the past month, all uninvited. As you see, he's squeezing by ebay's anti-spam rules on a questionable technicality. I've been simply deleting his emails up to now, but I am so sick to death of being spammed by this guy I thought I'd get his ebay ID and turn him over to you.
The ebay ID connected with the email address he used to contact me ([email protected]) is xxxxxxxx. That ID was suspended by ebay.
I would appreciate your taking action to prevent this seller from spamming ebay bidders in the future.
SH then asked me to send them the emails I'd received, including headers. I used the same title as the subject of my follow-up email but added SH's reference number.
Good luck!
[ edited by HartCottageQuilts on Sep 8, 2000 01:18 PM ]
posted on September 8, 2000 01:23:12 PM
I think what safeharbor is trying to tell you is to get a life and stop bothering them with this kind of petty crap. Is your life so miserable that you feel the need to make other people miserable just for sending you an email? Maybe Safeharbor would be more effective if you stopped polluting their email system so they could concentrate on important problems.
posted on September 8, 2000 01:33:58 PM
pharlap - What I'm reading here is that this person received ONE email from a seller he had previously purchased an item from. You have to be a real SOB to report someone under circumstances like that. ONE FRIGGIN'
EMAIL. JUST CLICK ON DELETE.
posted on September 8, 2000 01:38:39 PM
Oh boy, here we go again....
BROOKLYNGUY: Re-write your comments, otherwise the Mod will boot you. Your first comment borders on insulting another memeber. The moderator might think otherwise. Fair warning.
On another note:
I checked an EOA of his and compared notes with the spam.
Everything matches up; it came from the same server, the lattitude and longitude were the same, the ISP numbers were the same.
I forwarded a copy along with the spam, and asked eBay to compare notes. And I asked them to look at the hotlink.
:\\\"Crystalline Sliver cannot be the target of spells or abilities.
[ edited by Crystalline_Sliver on Sep 8, 2000 01:44 PM ]
posted on September 8, 2000 01:49:34 PM
CS - Thanks for the warning. I was just wondering how much time and energy you have spent on bringing this outlaw to justice? Why is this so important to you?
posted on September 8, 2000 02:26:00 PM
Hello BrooklynGuy,
I am in the habit of reporting all spam and otherwise unsolicited junk mail.
Why?
Because as more and more people take to the Internet and email looking for a quick buck or to spout their political or religious beliefs, the more crud will be out there to clog the system.
Just as the postal service has been clogged with fourth class mailings that require my precious time to sort out of the legitimate mail I receive.
In order to "get a life" it is sometimes necessary to spend some of your time taking care of the pests that continually interfere with your enjoyment of that life.
