posted on September 6, 2004 05:12:14 PM new
Bid on something the other day, was outbid. Not under glassgrl so don't bother looking.
But I just received a 2nd chance offer and it was NOT from the seller! I knew this only because I had contacted him before as this was a high priced item $3,000 worth and this was not his email address. Plus, the email address "from" is different from the one they say respond to in the Ebay email to boot! That right there made me suspicious.
So I go look at the sellers auctions and in his TOS he says this is happening!
"BUYER BEWARE! I HAVE BEEN GETTING A LOT OF CUSTOMER BEING CONTACTED BY STRANGE EMAIL'S SAYING THEY ARE XXXXX ONE IS IN THE UK, AND ANOTHER HERE IN THE UNITED STATES. NOTE THAT IF THE EMAIL DOES NOT COME FROM [email protected] IT IS A FAKE, AND REPORT IT TO [email protected]; IN ADDITION THE TELEPHONE NUMBERS ARE THE ONLY NUMBERS YOU WILL EVER BE ASKED TO CONTACT XXXX. (The spoof'er will go to the auction site and see the bidders and send a very legitimate looking message for a 2nd chance offer using Ebay's forwarding email system. There is two ways to know you have been spoofed. 1. The spoofer will have a different email other than [email protected]; and 2. The spoofer will ask you to email him or call him outside of using Ebay. Just a very serious note to all ebay'ers. In my personal opinion Ebay should not allow this private information on bidders of an item along with what each bidder bidded for an item, this is causing easy work for spoofers. It is my opinion that Ebay should mask this information as private and only viewed between bidder and seller."
I can see where some people would fall for this in their excitement to get something that they wanted but didn't win. And $3,000 is not chump change!
posted on September 6, 2004 06:03:54 PM new
Wow!!! ... that is certainly a 1st .... every once in awhile we get these 'new twists' on internet fraud ... so it is good you posted this.
posted on September 6, 2004 06:04:38 PM new
Hi Glassgrl,
Maybe a year ago I kept getting attempts to access my computer. Every two or three minutes. Very annoying. I tracked down the ISP of the villain and it was Charter, which is my cable provider. I called them and reported it and they did take action. The attempts stopped within a couple of hours after I sent them the Norton log.
Another time I sent a "Do you know what one of your subscribers is doing" message to a spammer's ISP. It was one of those with a phony "Please enter your PayPal info" link. Didn't hear back from them but hopefully they did something about it.
posted on September 6, 2004 06:29:34 PM new
Well I've heard from the seller and it did NOT come from him of course.
The sender of the email from Ebay is a very low number of feedback person (what else?), no negative feedback but does sell some. Anyway his email addy was verizon whereas in the email it says respond to an AOL address.
I reported it to Ebay, Verizon and AOL.
This is such a shame.
How in the h*ll are they able to send a legitmate looking second chance offer?
posted on September 6, 2004 06:41:17 PM new
It's possible he may have that item for sale and he's trying a new twist on the bottomfeeder routine. He would be able to avoid some pretty hefty listing and FVF fees if someone were to fall for it. He's either awfully bold or awfully stupid to leave an easily found trail to his ISP(s) as well as a phone number.
A $75.00 solid state device will always blow first to protect a 25 cent fuse ~ Murphy's Law
posted on September 6, 2004 06:53:43 PM new
No the original seller that I bid with does sell this. He has a web site and everything. I contacted him because I wanted to pick the item up instead of having it shipped and he said that was fine.
The verizon and AOL addresses were the fake ones. That's why I don't understand how I can get an email through Ebay with Second Chance offer in the subject line.
Unless the Verizon Ebay Seller is sending it out through his own account and changing all the info in the email to make it look like it's coming from the legitimate seller.
Or at least trying to. That was tip off #1. The email address from was Verizon. But in the email it said respond to [email protected]. The real seller has an earthlink address.
posted on September 6, 2004 08:17:02 PM new
C'mon, glassgrl, they're just electronic blips. I'm no longer up to speed, but an email can be made to look like it is from any source you wish. As sparkz points out, the hard part is covering your tracks and making it authenticatable. The Titanic was taken out by an iceberg, but eBay will sink under an avalanche of phishing snowballs. While Meg fiddles with making life more difficult for sellers.
posted on September 6, 2004 08:40:16 PM new
Glassgrl...That was my point. Rereading my post, I could have worded it better. The Verizon seller probably has the item and is bottomfeeding off the legit seller that you were dealing with. There are a lot of bottomfeeders out there. If that's what the sender of the spoof email is trying to do, it's an original. Lucky he's too stupid to get his act together and cover his tracks.
A $75.00 solid state device will always blow first to protect a 25 cent fuse ~ Murphy's Law
posted on September 6, 2004 08:45:57 PM new
Parklane...You are 101% absolutely correct. The biggest threat to Ebay right now is their credibility. The news services publish an occasional warning about fraud attempts, but sooner or later, some bulldog reporter will get access to $$$ figures in losses from phishing fraud, and after it gets published people will become afraid to bid or even register. Paypal will collapse first, followed by Ebay about 6 months later.
A $75.00 solid state device will always blow first to protect a 25 cent fuse ~ Murphy's Law
posted on September 6, 2004 09:05:48 PM new
E bay get your head out of the sand before you get your AZZ shot off and LISTEN.
Your supposid SAFEGUARDS are are being purged while YOU play with silly things like your selling limit has been met. And ALL your Other Silly Bells and whistles and toys. Ya better get back to KISS Business.
Please visit www.pomonaswapmeet.comThe BIGGEST HOT ROD, Beer and Babes, Car Show swapmeet on the WEST Coast. Don't be L7, that's a Square. hahahaha
posted on September 6, 2004 09:44:41 PM new
Jack...The bad part is, Ebay has the technology to notify users that they have a legit email waiting. The problem is, it's incorporated into the Ebay Toolbar, which is major league spyware that even Ebay has never denied. I can't imagine anyone stupid enough to download spyware so they can realize some degree of safety in their emails. It's like a choice between the witch and the devil. They could easily incorporate that same technology on their website, and with a single cookie on each registered member's computer, could direct him to that email as soon as he signs on. I agree with you, forget the bells and whistles and get serious about security before it's too late.
A $75.00 solid state device will always blow first to protect a 25 cent fuse ~ Murphy's Law
posted on September 7, 2004 01:46:09 PM new
oh great. Now a Second Second Chance for the same item from a different Ebay ID but both want the money sent to the same as the other email AOL account.
posted on September 8, 2004 07:42:25 PM new
GlassGrl, you are right, someone has breached eBay/PayPal security systems and are able to send Fraudulent 2nd Chance Offers and Spoof Request for Payments.
After spending over one hour in the phone with PayPal, A PayPal supervisor admitted to me that they are having problem with Spoof Payment Requests.
Everyone should be very careful, don't respond to 2nd Chance Offers and make payment only to the email account supplied by eBay, always pay by Credit Card and insist to have your purchase shipped USPS, yet another level of protection from the US Postal Inspectors.
I for one, I have stopped making purchases from eBay and paying with PayPal until the problem is resolved. See my posting Spoof Request for Payments for further details.
posted on September 14, 2004 10:18:20 AM new
well I got the canned response from Ebay of course.
And both sellers (ebay motors sellers I think) are both still active and not NARU.
Here's Ebay email:
Hello,
Thank you for taking the time to report this email.
The message you received is fraudulent and is not a part of eBay's second chance offer program. In addition, it is attempting to sell an item outside of the eBay site. To be a valid transaction, your User ID needs to be listed as the buyer on the ended auction page. Items purchased outside of the eBay site are not eligible for our protective
services, such as the Fraud Protection Program. This service is only available for items listed, bought, and sold on eBay in compliance with our guidelines and policies. For more information on this policy, please
visit the link below:
We strongly recommend that you ignore this email and all emails that ask you to complete a transaction offsite. We would like to remind you to make sure that you are the confirmed winning bidder on the auction
before sending money to anyone! In addition, make certain that you dealing with the actual seller and not someone else. eBay only recognizes the seller and the winning bidder that is on the auction page at the end of the auction as the rightful participants.
In addition, we do not recommend the use of instant cash wire transfer services such as Western Union and MoneyGram, and we ask that users decline sending payment in cases where these are the only methods of payment offered by the seller. Generally, if payment is sent using an instant cash wire transfer service and the item is not delivered as
promised, no recourse is available for recovering funds. In most cases, an escrow service should be used when purchasing high dollar value items. More information on the benefits and risks of individual payment
methods can be found at:
http://pages.ebay.com/help/buy/payment.html
eBay urges caution when purchasing high-priced items, especially if the price seems too good to be true.
I appreciate you taking the time to send us this information so that we were able to look into this.
