"new" eBay e-mail scam

[west3man]

It's new to me, anyway.
I received the following e-mail message, today:

"I'm willing to bid on your action but i was wondering how much is the shipping cost to 10009/new york ? And also which shipping service you will use ? And what about the payment terms ? I just want to be sure about my purchasing..Tahnk you."

It arrived and looked just like the legitimate e-mails that get sent through eBay's message service (y'know, where you can click the person's screenname and send him/her an e-mail). At the moment, I am not selling anything on eBay, though.

Most of the links in the e-mail were false. I'm confident that if I'd clicked on them to find out what was going on, they'd have sent me to an faux-eBay site (complete with eBay emblems, and whatnot), asking me to sign-in, and promptly make note of my eBay username and password.

With that information, they could scam plenty of other people out of their money and/or merchandise using my eBay history and reputation.


These scammers are getting too good at this. Just a heads-up.

[borateen]

Wow...I got one of those last week and thought it was just a glitch or something.

[K'Nort]

I've been getting quite a few and have just been deleting them unopened. When they're legit, they also show up under Messages when you log into your My eBay.

[Huh?]

I've been getting quite a few and have just been deleting them unopened. When they're legit, they also show up under Messages when you log into your My eBay.I get tons of fake Paypal emails. I just forward them to spoof@paypal.com.

[west3man]

I get tons of fake Paypal emails. I just forward them to spoof@paypal.com.
I've been getting Paypal and eBay fakeroos for years, now. This is the first time I've seen one take this form.

This is just the kind of thing that makes people afraid of the internet, eBay, or technology, in general. It seems simple enough, but it's an e-trap that almost anyone could fall into.

[Bard]

This is just the kind of thing that makes people afraid of the internet, eBay, or technology, in general. It seems simple enough, but it's an e-trap that almost anyone could fall into.

Pretty much. I think that's how someone tried to steal my credit card info last year. The best thing to do is verify and strictly purchase things through established sites, and don't answer emails from possible spoofs: just go to the legitimate website and verify correspondance and offers from the main site. (Apparently, American Express hasn't caught on to the idea and still sends me email that I constantly have to verify via phone or their home site.)

[west3man]

Pretty much. I think that's how someone tried to steal my credit card info last year. The best thing to do is verify and strictly purchase things through established sites, and don't answer emails from possible spoofs: just go to the legitimate website and verify correspondance and offers from the main site. (Apparently, American Express hasn't caught on to the idea and still sends me email that I constantly have to verify via phone or their home site.)
Uncool.

AOL eventually caught on. I'd ignored some REAL e-mails from them because I thought they were scams. Now there's a way to be sure without going to so much trouble.

[Callie]

I got one of those scam eBay messages. Forwarded it to eBay's spoof address. Considering that A) I haven't used eBay in ages and B) don't even remember my login info, I wasn't about to fall for it.

If you're not sure, look at the message headers. You can easily see what mail servers it bounced through before it ever got to you.

[Solaris]

Thanks, West! A friend of ours recently had identity theft---this may be how it happened. I'll forward them the info.