posted on October 9, 2000 07:16:08 PM
I received an email that looked just like a Yahoo page. In fact it WAS a yahoo page. It had a link at the top that said Yahoo, Acct Info, Help. When I clicked on Account Info, it opended up that page where you can change all your user information!
This came in as an attachment on an email from an AOL user. I was able to determine the name of the person from looking up the advanced properties of the email.
This page had the Yahoo header and the above mentioned links, but the actual text on the page was all about this users "special auction" with a link to an actual dutch auction in progress! They were asking $600 for each "lot" supposedly valued at $2500. No pictures-very low FB on the seller.
How were they able to DUPLICATE an actual Yahoo page? How did they get MY PRIMARY ADDY?
I have never had this person bid on any of my auctions nor have I ever bid on any of their auctions. I don't know how they got my address!
Is their anyone at Yahoo I can send this to to have them look into it?
posted on October 9, 2000 08:44:37 PM
I am also an AOL user!
I would be very careful about opening anything up with an attachment from any unknown source without contacting AOL or if you could identify it was indeed Yahoo?
I have received a couple of E-mails that I could not even forward from supposedly NETSCAPE and I think one looked like Yahoo?
I had to download a file to open them and there is no way I will download a file to open and E-mail with all the AOL scams that are out there that contain viruses and wreck havoc on your computer!
Opening an E-mail should be okay but to download the attachment only if I am sure where it came from?
I get one of the AOL Give Aways at least once a week and they are not from AOL!
They get forwarded to "tosemail1 or tosspam on AOL!
Usually contain a virus per any feedback I have gotten back form AOL or other venues!
posted on October 9, 2000 08:53:46 PM
I am so non tech that I am a danger to myself!
This email came in with the "paper clip", I have norton and in the year that I have had it, I have only had one email quaranteened. I did not HAVE to open the attachment. When I clicked on the email it was just there. It WAS a Yahoo page. All the links worked just like on Yahoo pages.
This email was designed to look like YAHOO was sending me the notice about a "special auction".
I just haven't a clue how they did it or how they got my email address. I am not AOL, I use a very small locally owned ISP.
Thanks for the link to Yahoo, I will contact them.
[ edited by sulyn1950 on Oct 9, 2000 08:56 PM ]
If you're registered on ebay, ANY registered ebay user can get your email address there. The only ways anyone can get your email address on Yahoo (if you two didn't have an auction in common) is if you posted it in "About Me" or in your Booth.
It's not hard to duplicate someone's webpage if you know HTML. Even if their "auction" is a legitimate Yahoo listing, that's against Yahoo's terms of use and should be reported (as VeryModern said).
posted on October 10, 2000 12:48:12 PM
Well, I did report it to yahoo, but I really am not expecting to hear from them. I rarely do. I am sure (after reading granee's post) they got my email addy from one of my auctions, because I always put it in. This person DOES sell in the same category as I do, but it amazes me they would "wade" through all the listings in their category to look for sellers with posted emails to send their spam to. That's an awful lot of work!
Of course, after I sent an email to Yahoo, I began to think maybe I shouldn't have. I mean if this person went to all the trouble of wading through listings looking for emails, they could conceiveable (if they are so geared) make my future Yahoo dealings problematic. Especially since I sent an email back to them (yes I was dumb) and told them I didn't appreciate their spam and I was contacting Yahoo. I then put a block on that address. I really think I over reacted and should NOT have sent them an email at all. At that point, however, I just wasn't sure how they got my email address. As I said in my earlier post, I am danger to myself.
Hopefully, Yahoo will ignore my email, nothing will come of it and I won't have any future problems with this person.
One other question, how do you send/forward a copy of an email with full headers? I have seen people say to do that, but I am not sure how that is done.
Thanks for your imput. sulyn
[ edited by sulyn1950 on Oct 10, 2000 12:54 PM ]
posted on October 10, 2000 01:40:34 PM
You can get a full webpage copied directly in to email with the new IE 5.0 just copying the whole web page and pasteing in to a new email not sure why they sent this attached.
sending out notices to past custumer isnt new in the auction world maybe this seller has two IDs on yahoo and you bought from there other ID at one time .
WWW.dman-n-company.com
posted on October 10, 2000 01:56:04 PM
Yes, I now understand that sending the web page is apparently easy to do. However, they had altered this "official" web page to sound like YAHOO was actually suggesting I look at this SPECIAL auction that might be of interest to me. Someone has already said that if you know HTML that also is not too hard to do. It was just so strange to me.
You are correct about the multiple IDs, I suppose I could have already purchased from this person, but I really don't think so. Their ads are very non-professional. They offer "lots", but do not even provide a description OR picture of the items you will be bidding on. The prices range from starting at $50 to starting at $600. They don't even provide you with the total number of "pieces" you will be getting! The FB they have received (they only have a total of 14 with 2 negs) is either for selling totally different kinds of merchandise than they are currently offering OR as a buyer. Most of it is as a buyer.
I have to give them an A for effort though. They are trying to drum up business by making it look like YAHOO is endorseing their "special" auctions! Wish I could be so "creative"! LOL
