j._mose Posted September 7, 2003 Share Posted September 7, 2003 I received an E-mail this AM titled "0fficial Notice for all E-Bay users". The body of text stated the Ebay performs a routine check/verification on all Ebay users and couldn't verify my information. As a result, my use of Ebay will be restricted until I update and verify my account information. There's a hyperlink which takes me to a page that looks offical with the same color logo. However, it requests passwords, backup passwords, credit card number and expiration date, ATM password, etc. I smell a rat! So I went into Ebay and bid on an item. It worked perfectly...therefore my account does not appear to be restricted. Did anyone else receive a similar e-mail? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wayne_scott Posted September 7, 2003 Share Posted September 7, 2003 I recived a similar e-mail, however the e-mail was from E-bay@yahoo.com which raised my suspsions. I did not give them any informaiton of course and deledted the e-mail. In hind sight I should have reported the e-mail to E-Bay. Wayne Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
will_perlis Posted September 7, 2003 Share Posted September 7, 2003 "Did anyone else receive a similar e-mail?" There's a lot of that going around. I've gotten several of those. It's not that difficult to create an imposter site and harvest information to be used for identity theft. If an email asks for anything, report it and delete it. There is NO need for any legit company to require that info for any sort of check or verification. If through some IT disaster they happen to lose their database tables, for example, they'll ask you to register again the usual way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robert_davis2 Posted September 7, 2003 Share Posted September 7, 2003 Don't you read the email Ebay actually sends you? All that Ebay spam mentions to ignore these things. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mark_muse Posted September 7, 2003 Share Posted September 7, 2003 May I suggest that it is appropriate and in everyone's best interest for you to contact a law enforcement authority when something like this happens (in the US I believe it would be the FBI). And I would guess they would want you to not delete the email before you forward it to them. Just a thought. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mike_troxell2 Posted September 7, 2003 Share Posted September 7, 2003 Just always remember that NO legitimate site will ever ask you for your password. If the administrator has to get into part of the site for some type of maintenance and can't do it because they need access, they can always assign a new password and then have you change it once they are through with whatever they are doing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
art_haykin Posted September 7, 2003 Share Posted September 7, 2003 I received that spam and have never even used eBay! See: www.techtv.com/news/securityalert/story/0,24195,3408463,00.html (Be sure there are no spaces in the URL) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dan_fromm1 Posted September 7, 2003 Share Posted September 7, 2003 JP, for a while I was getting a lot of that crap. Some of them have asked for all account numbers, passwords, ..., you name it, everything but my passport number. Identity theft 101, I gather. Forward the e-mail to spoof@ebay.com eBay and PayPal make the point that they never ask any customer to send account/financial information by e-mail. At most, they'll ask the customer to log on to their site and update something there. Since there's a risk that a crook sending bogus e-mail will include a bogus link in it, if you ever get e-mail asking for account information that includes a link, don't click on it. If you feel you must respond, get into your browser and go to the site from there. Cheers, sympathy, Dan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kelly_flanigan1 Posted September 7, 2003 Share Posted September 7, 2003 This is called spam; and is not from Ebay; thus your title is wrong. WE receive about one of these each day. Just delete them; along with the get rich; viagra; bigger boobs; Nigerian princes with bank accounts that have millions to give away; and other crap. If you check the actual source; these are not actually from Ebay; or Paypal. The con artists make a bogus webpage/link/email; in order to con you into your credit card info. Imagine a total stranger calling up your house; and requesting all your credit card numbers; passwords; keys to your house; and your cash. Learn to hangup and ignore BS; this is the junkmail of the internet; a real clogger of the system. We have used Ebay for about 5 years; with no problems; and Paypal for about 3 with no problems. The scammers pray on you believing that the bogus emails are real; they are total BS crap; a con. Scamming of the public is as old as man; learn to identify cons and ignore them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
georges_pelpel Posted September 7, 2003 Share Posted September 7, 2003 I received the same identical e-mail about a month ago. As you did I was very skeptical about it and never responded. I have been using EBay since without any problem. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kelly_flanigan1 Posted September 7, 2003 Share Posted September 7, 2003 Dan; the latest bogus "Ebay" bogus emails cannot even be forwarded; he we somestimes do a screen print; and send/email a snapshot of the bogus link to the spoof dept at ebay. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brian_ellis3 Posted September 7, 2003 Share Posted September 7, 2003 This isn't spam, it's attempted fraud. If you use your e mail address as your user ID on e bay then you've probably gotten more than one of these messages. E bay sent a notice out a while back urging, or maybe requiring, everyone who used their e mail address as their user ID to change to something else in order to minimize this kind of thing. The give-away is often the e mail address of the criminals who send these things out. They purport to be from e bay but the ones I used to get had a yahoo or hotmail return address so it's fairly obvious that something funny is going on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kelly_flanigan1 Posted September 7, 2003 Share Posted September 7, 2003 Ebay wants to get you to change your user name from an email address to just a name to lock in their profits; and make "non-Ebay" sales abit harder to do. Our Ebay name at my company is an email address; and we do get some "NON-Ebay" transaction volume. Ebay wants to stop these "non-ebay" transactions; and force all to use screen names by January 2004. We sell some items each month via "non ebay" transactions; with people that are not on Ebay yet. When one spends many hundreds of dollars monthly on Ebay fees; an extra sale or two helps us pay our Ebay bill. The Ebay fees have risen; and they want a piece of every contact made thru ebay. Ebay has gotten to be alot more hassle in the last few years; it takes us 3 times as long to relist auctions than several years ago. This is for the same auction item. With the added Ebay hassles; we are starting to list items on other sites. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pvp Posted September 7, 2003 Share Posted September 7, 2003 Yes, I got one just like it, along with hundreds (or thousands) of others. It's a scam. It sounds like you were alert enough NOT to give the guy any of your personal information... I hope so, because anyone who does is about to become a victim of identity theft. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul moshay Posted September 7, 2003 Share Posted September 7, 2003 I even got a Spoofer from "paypal" asking all but my shirt size. I reported it to the real Paypal and deleted it. I seem to get something like that once a week from "ebay" too. Paul Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
douglas_pollock1 Posted September 7, 2003 Share Posted September 7, 2003 I received one on 9/4/03. One of the correct eBay addresses was used as a URL; however, it was cleverly displayed using graphics and actually would connect to a different site. I'm glad I checked the source code for the email message. I forwarded the message to spoof(at)eBay.com as they request and received a quick thank you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thomas_diekwisch1 Posted September 7, 2003 Share Posted September 7, 2003 Reporting to ebay has little effect, even in serious fraud issues, at least IMHO. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kelly_flanigan1 Posted September 7, 2003 Share Posted September 7, 2003 We sell enough on Ebay to have a personal contact person and phone number. Ebay constantly trys to surf these crafty cons; and tries to shut them down. We drag the bogus emails for Ebay and Paypal to a folder. They many times are shut down after a week or so; but they mutate/morph into another scam. After one has a folder of a hundreds of these; one really gets a dim view of these cons. We got 2 scams today; and it is Sunday. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joe_photo Posted September 9, 2003 Share Posted September 9, 2003 I got a similar email at an address that I don't use for ebay from someone who had a dot com website which was not available when I tried to go there. I did report it to spoof@ebay.com but didn't want to associate my ebay handle with that complaint. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steve_baggett Posted September 9, 2003 Share Posted September 9, 2003 I actually went to the link and filled in the blanks. However, in place of real data, I used every vile obscenity that I could arrange into a data item that would cast aspersions on these people and their ancestry (including their mother). It was fun trying to think up nasty names, phrases, addresses, etc. to use in the data fields. It made me feel better, anyway. At least they will have to examine the output from their "hit" to see if they harvested anything useful, and I got a small catharsis out it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fred_sun1 Posted September 20, 2003 Share Posted September 20, 2003 Got the fake Paypal update message by webmail today. It links to servers in Korea and a college in Thailand. Looks like they're ramdomly trying email accounts to get some live ones registered with Paypal. <br> http://www.paypal.com%2f@211.113.186.42/pp/update.htm<br> http://www.paypal.com%2f@202.44.12.83/pp/thankyou.htm<br> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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