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Hey...I am rather new to selling on Ebay, but I figured it might be worth posting if it help someone else. I was just scammed by someone posing to be an international buyer would offered me a good amount of money to ship an item to Nigeria. He "purchased" the item and then sent me a fake PayPal message saying that the fund were there, but they were being held till I provided a tracking number. I called PayPal and they don't "hold funds". Hope this helps someone.
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quote:
Originally posted by ladydragracer:
If it isn't in your ebay box, then don't answer and forward the message to spoof@ebay.com

Certainly good advice, but I've read that scam/fake messages have also shown up in ebayer's message boxes. eBay's message system cannot be trusted to be 100% secure. Don't expect eBay to admit to this either. It stands to reason, if scammers can highjack eBay accounts with ease, they can certainly access the ebay message system, as well as your PayPal account. The scammers are everywhere. Roll Eyes
Last edited by ninthwave
You are all incorrect. What you all experienced here was Internet "Phishing". The supposed emails you received were definitely fake. But the weblinks those emails provided were also fake, redirecting you to fake eBay and/or Pay Pal websites. IF you logged into them your account info is then stored on a server of the fake websites and YOUR ACCOUNTS WILL BE HACKED.
I highly recommend, IF YOU CLICKED THOSE LINKS to log in, to change your email AND your passwords.

Unfortunate these idiot spammers are able to do this, but eBay and Pay Pal tell you to NEVER to trust an email. Yes, eBay and Pay Pal will and do send emails... but never trust a link provided in one. Log into your eBay account to check for any messages there, and log into Pay Pal to check your account. Do this the normal way by typing in www.eBay.com and www.paypal.com.
Again, NEVER trust a link provided in an email... EVER. Especially when money is concerned. There are regular bank emails that are "phished" too, redirecting you to a fake site that captures your account info as you "login".
Actually the hackers have gotten through the official ebay and paypal sites. ebay claims that thousands of users are experiencing the same problems. In addition, thousands of us are receiving emails from ask seller a question that are geared for other sellers and visa versa where I as a seller do not receve all my ask seller a question emails in my ebay. Yes, their answer, "if we can find the problem we can fix the problem." Not to forget listings that are lost in cyber space. Yes, thousands of us are in the same boat and "SURPRISINGLY" ebay refuses to reimburse nor credit our accounts for their technical issues.
Report scams to spoof@e-Bay.com You just need to forward the e-mail. Always check your "ask seller a question" mail in your "My e-Bay" mail box. You can also download a program which alerts you to phishing mail that looks like it was sent from an e-Bay member.Most times I receive these spoof e-mails from the UK using an unsuspecting legitimate e-Bay member. Good Luck!
The Silver Spoon
You can always check the header of the email also.

I have full headers showing on my business email accounts. Easily viewable to see the received from lines along with the IP address.

Example from this mornings email from the headers of a phisher email:

From : eBay <****@flixster.com>
Reply-To : bounce@flixster.com
Sent : Thursday, June 8, 2007 1:08 AM
To : **********@**********.com
Subject : message from buyer

Received: from mail2.flixster.com ([209.237.233.42])

How it would appear if I didn't have headers on:

From : eBay
Reply-To : eBay
Sent : Thursday, June 8, 2007 1:08 AM
To : *********@**********.com
Subject : message from buyer

As you all know, Just because it states eBay in the from line doesn't mean its from eBay.

All good advice above. I have just taken it a step further and use the headers in my email. It doesn't take any longer to read my email, just another preventive measure.

If you don't want to set up your email to view headers...you can always just view the headers on individual emails if you have any qualms.

Remember, never click any links!

Good Luck,
Donna
While gone to State convention, I have received a phishing email that shows Bill Cobb with a message that Ebay is having a 1 cent listing week, but you have to sign up to receive the opportunity. I looked at Ebay announcements and saw no info. I then came here and saw no forum conversation. I did the click here and YUP! It wants you to log in. I have fire fox and it got me out of there fast. So...............trust nothing, always use alternative means to checkout ebay, paypal matters.
The Nigera Scam, never trust anyone asking you to ship to nigera, or form Nigera. Someone tried to get me with this to, and as you are Im new to sellin on ebay as well, and that why I felt i was targeted with such scam. but common sense kicked in.
Also never trust people offering you an oppurtunity in your item questions, I personally hate that.
Also never trust off ebay purchases

and Ive been targeted with the phishing scam, which almost worked
Thanks for all of your e-mail. One problem! Never even consider selling outside of e-Bay. Here are 2 good reasons. 1. It's not safe for you or the buyer. 2. Making deals outside of e-Bay is a violation. Trust me! You don't want to bite the hand that feeds you.If you break the rules everyone loses. Remember "A good name is more precious than silver and gold"
LOOK At this scam someone just tried to get me with
________________________________________________
My name is Shiloh Hall.
I am verry interested regarding your item and please give me the buy it now
price.I am a litle confused because I remember seeing the same item with same
description but with diferent seller ID. Do you and another seller ID? This is
the link of that auction ,take a look:

89.34.208.13/cgi/ws/eBayISAPI.dll/SignIn/authrequiredn_W11QitemZ180099995083QQcategoryZ14233QQraZ235PcmdZViewItem.php
________________________________________________

Dont you just like the fact Jack Black 2001, movie character is intersted in my item, luckly Windows Vista Has Phishing Filters, and the fact this login url is an IP address, this one is no were as good as the first one Phishing scam that tried to get me.
quote:
Originally posted by The Silver Spoon:
Never even consider selling outside of e-Bay. Here are 2 good reasons. 1. It's not safe for you or the buyer.


Are you saying that if someone sees my listings on eBay, asks about other items I may have and proceeds to my non-eBay store that it's unsafe for both them and me?

quote:
2. Making deals outside of e-Bay is a violation. Trust me!


No, it's not. If you do something like ending a listing early to sell off eBay that's a violation (fee circumvention). Under other circumstances eBay can't tell you where you can and can't sell.
ooo, i got a good one today.. this one actually made it thru to my inbox, altho hotmail did warn me it 'could be dangerous!'..

Question from tmcneil2hv7

Activity with tmcneil2hv7 (last 90 days):
- I am currently bidding on 1 of their items
- hedgeproductions is currently bidding on 0 of my items
- We have traded 1 item
- I did not win 0 of their listings

tmcneil2hv7( 238)
Positive feedback: 100%
Member since: Mar-19-00
Location: United States
Registered on: www.ebay.com



Hello,
I'm still waiting the item for about 5 days. What happened?

Please respond me ASAP.

Thank you,

Kelly.



now, the thing that bothers me about this one is, when i hover over the ebay name, i can see the link will lead me to view the feedback of *someone else's* name... when i (safely!) go to ebay, and try to find the member's name, i can see that they are a big seller w/ a store and stuff, and obv. this 'phisher' is using the seller's feedback link as part of the scam. of course i forwarded it, and ebay said "You may have received a message attempting to solicit a transaction outside of eBay or a message sent in an attempt to obtain your account password or other sensitive information", but obv. they couldn't tell much either (that's the 2nd response from them about this one). my q is... should i contact the person who's name you can't see, but is linked thru this email? i feel like i should warn them... or do you think ebay will, cuz they can see where the links lead to, as well?? any sugg. appreciated!
I agree that it doesn't do much good to forward them to ebay- I have the auto response memorized! I too use Hotmail and got a message from the exact same "seller" saying the exact same thing (mcneil ....). Since I am new to selling, I had only sold a handful of items and had the buyers names memorized too! Otherwise, I probably would have opened that email and responded-- being unaware. I did forward it. Got that lovely autoreply and left it alone. I can see how a newbie might get sucked in
All of these suggestions are very good. I have received literally hundreds of phishing emails. First, if it is an offer to do anything with Funds, DO NOT CLICK ON THE LINK. Secondly, IF IT SOUNDS TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE, IT ABSOLUTELY IS.

If they are using an "Ebay message" template, look above the first Yellow Banner. You should see your "Real-Entire Name" that you used to sign up to Ebay originally, and your "email address" BOTH.

99.9% of the scammers only have public info (I have my email address in my listings so members can contact me and know I'm real).

An example of the sentence at the top of real emails:

eBay sent this message to YOUR NAME HERE (patriot_coins_$_collectibles).

If it doesn't include both==It absolutely is a Phish or Scam. Be careful, some may contain both and still be a Phish or Scam.
================================================

And I believe the Ebay system works once you forward the phishing email to spoof@ebay.com, because I haven't seen repeat senders in the detailed sending/receiving headers of the emails. I'm sure with the thousands of emails regarding Phishing or Scamming Ebay/Paypal gets daily, their system is automated to handle these and forward to authorities. The system is automated because Ebay/Payal must receive thousands of these kinds of email daily. Don't be offended by the auto-reply.

If you are using Outlook or Outlook Express, you simply right click on the email message and choose Properties, then click the tab at the top and choose Details. The email details the sending IP addresses and user names, and reply IP's and user names. It looks like this:

Received: from imta03.emeryville.ca.mail.comcast.net ([76.96.30.29])
by alnrmxc21.comcast.net (alnrmxc21) with ESMTP
id <20071022113424a2100grlv4e>; Mon, 22 Oct 2007 11:34:24 +0000
X-Originating-IP: [76.96.30.29]
Received: from mx9.smf.ebay.com ([66.135.209.206])
by IMTA03.emeryville.ca.mail.comcast.net with comcast
id 3PaQ1Y01j4Tk3vm0000000; Mon, 22 Oct 2007 11:34:24 +0000
X-Authority-Analysis: v=1.0 c=1 a=pjdaNNIBAAAA:8 a=2BHjiyKPOlGVIOcvmvcA:9 a=UD967Wrxv5TopPdilkcA:7 a=UKMHoJYsfKeIPrg44C2I6uPPqT4A:4 a=si9q_4b84H0A:10 a=rPt6xJ-oxjAA:10 a=pwIP7ZobAAAA:8 a=NyfgJmMsAAAA:8 a=k4o1I3v0dgzT2yxcBo0A:9 a=_OEiDD53Tje1azJufPAA:7 a=QVggySFX6FmD3lzrCbDL-iFKo8oA:4 a=37WNUvjkh6kA:10
Received: from smfbat03.smf.ebay.com ([10.8.194.232])
by mx9.smf.ebay.com (8.13.5/8.13.5) with ESMTP id l9MBYBok028336
for <patriotcoins@comcast.net>; Mon, 22 Oct 2007 04:34:24 -0700
X-eBay-MailTracker: 10100.383.0.0
To: "patriotcoins@comcast.net" <patriotcoins@comcast.net>
From: store-newsletter@ebay.com
Subject: eBay Seller Email: Check out my Newly Listed Items
Date: Mon, 22 Oct 07 04:31:59 GMT-0700
Message-ID: <1594742.1193052719635.JavaMail.ebba@smfbat03>
Reply-To: store-newsletter@ebay.com
X-Antivirus: AVG for E-mail 7.5.488 [269.15.5/1084]
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: multipart/mixed; boundary="=======AVGMAIL-471CAE2E112B======="


================================================

And Finally----BE CAREFUL ABOUT ACQUAINTANCES YOU MEET ON EBAY.

Someone took 6 months becoming my "friend" to set me up to sell some items for him (later to find out he never had the items). He purchased $300 worth of items from one of my auctions. We corresponded for several months. He sent me some real Cuban Cigars (about $150 worth) for free a month prior to him activating his scam.

Later he said his Ebay/Paypal account was on temporary hold and asked me if I could sell some of the NGC Certified MS70/69 $50 Buffalo Gold Coins for him. We worked out a commission. I was handling the money, so I knew I had control over something. I sold nearly $50,000 in a week. The other thing this individual did was do it over the July 4th Holiday Weekend, which made it more difficult to diagnose because banks, etc. were closed on holiday, or had limited staffing.

My ONLY SAVING GRACES: 1) I handled the money. 2) I wouldn't release funds until the buyers received their coins and left feedback (even under Extreme Pressure to do so by this joker).

I printed the shipping labels, made a PDF file for the labels and emailed the labels to him so he could just simply print the label to ship the Coins.

He changed the addresses to go to another address in the same town (first box shipped with $6754 worth of Gold Buffalo's was to a Chinese restaurant in the buyers home town), and shipped EMPTY BOXES. Now these required Signature Confirmation, and I was able to track the first box (buyer knew PO employees rather well, next-door neighbor), and the Post Master because it's a small town and he did alot of shipping.

I called the Chinese restaurant that signed for the package, and they all got a laugh that the box was empty when it originally was delivered. They had opened the package, even though they did not know the sender.

To protect the chain of evidence, I had the Post Master pick up the box from the Chinese Restaurant. The buyer actually volunteered to do that, but working with buyer, I called the Post Master and she had it picked up by Postal Employees.

The PO delivery person also remembered the box not weighing what was marked on the package; and when delivering the package thought that was strange, but delivered it nonetheless.

To make a longer story short: 1) I had $20,000 in my personal bank account that I sent back back to my Paypal account and refunded the buyers (with some hassles using the Paypal system) because my account had been "Frozen" so it didn't allow me to refund properly. Paypal also said the buyers would be out of luck if I were dishonest. 2)I emailed all buyers to make them aware of this SCAM, and to not reply to anyone but me, Ebay or Paypal, regarding their purchase; And that I was working on refunding their money so they could buy from another seller. Many of them already had received bogus "Second Chance Offers" to purchase these coins directly from the Crook in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. 3)It took me a few days to figure out how to refund the money to all the buyers (NO HELP FROM PAYPAL) and within a week or so, everyone had their money back (at a cost to me of over 100 hours at $180 per hour). This jerk was a career criminal. Contact me and I'll provide his name(s) to you.

This individual is trully evil and tried to make it look like I was the Scammer to the Authorities (who saw through that rather quickly). I also filed complaints with my local Post Office (who knows me rather well), the FBI, and my local county Sheriff's Police. It still took 7 months to have him arrested, and primarily because he did this to others as well, and sold on other sites. The authorities told me unless it was over $100,000, it wouldn't be "worth it" for Postal Inspectors to get involved and actually investigate/arrest him (how's that--will give you a simple traffic ticket, but won't investigate/arrest someone unless they committed multiple frauds and they add up to over $100,000.........simply B.S. to me).

This individual has been indicted and is facing 11+ counts of Interstate Internet Fraud and multiple counts of Mail Fraud with the Postal Inspector's Office. I have been reassured he will be having his last meal behind bars.

MORAL OF THE STORY: BE CAREFUL OUT THERE. THERE ARE SOME EBAYERS THAT ARE NOT AS HONEST AS YOU WISH THEM TO BE & IF IT SOUNDS TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE--------IT IS.

I lost nearly $9000 in commissions, and over 100 hours of my time (which in my computer networking business I charge $180 per hour), to come up with a loss of over $25,000.

I know this got off the subject of Phishing and Email Scams, but thought this would be helpful to all that read it.

It has taken me over a year to sell anything else on Ebay, and to get back to my hobby of collecting coins.

It was a very costly educational process, and if you have any questions you may contact me through my store:

Patriot Coins and Collectibles

You should also check my feedback after July 3rd 2006, to see my buyers feedback from this process.

If this saves even one of you from the headaches I've incurred (and my only Neutral and Negative feedback), then it was worth sharing this with you.
Last edited by patriotcoins
Thank you for your response regarding the Feedback. We do work very hard to keep it as perfect as possible, and to make the buying experience with Patriot Coins and Collectibles one of the finest buying experiences on Ebay.

I have quite a few real good friends I met on Ebay; A few of them that were buyers of the Gold Buffalo's that I trust wholeheartedly. If I showed up on their doorstep unannounced, I know I'd have a place to be for the night.

I even have a few that I send hundreds of dollars (sometimes thousands) worth of stock to at a time, to search for errors because I don't have the time nor their experience.

Personally, the vast majority of people I've met through Ebay are wonderful, honest people. It's the few (quite a few on Ebay) that ruin that for some of us.

However, I posted this so people are aware that there are Some Real Evil People out there that prey on the honest. And the more honest and friendly you are, the more a target you become for some of them.

One of the reasons I think I was targeted by this jerk is because I was in the process of putting together the "Patriot Coin Network" to share knowledge like this; And was planning on implementing a website to publish stories like this and the names involved to help protect other Sellers on all the Auction sites.

During the process of exposing him and bringing him into the light, he contacted the buyers and tried to get them to believe it was me, not he, and tried to ruin our Feedback on Ebay because he didn't get "paid off" for his scam.

I also wanted to give more details to the email question because I probably have more knowledge and technical experience in that area than most.

I lock my car doors to keep the honest people honest, a thief will get in somehow.

Thanks for your interest, your response, and the nice comments about our Feedback. I really hope this "opens everyones eyes" just a little.

And if it helps even 1 honest Ebayer to avoid a scammer, it's worth it!

Anyone interested in this jerks name, address and email addresses may request that, and we'll happily provide that information.

Smiles,

PatriotCoins

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