Ebay Scam Email Identity Fraud?

I just received an email asking for quite a bit of info, from name, address, company info, to SS# and credit card #, Credit Limit, and PIN. A link is included in the email that directs you to an "Ebay" page, but the URL looks like total scam to me:

http://[email protected]/.ebayDLLupdate/index.html

Notice it is ebay.com@incu. Bullshit.

I have contacted Ebay, which is harder to do than Chinese math, will see if this is as fraudulent as I sense it to be. The page "looks" kosher, but not that URL. This is a scam, a pretty good one, but I am calling shenanigans.

Plus, the email says Ebay will be forced to terminate my Ebay account if I don't respond w/in with ALL fields of info provided. Bullshit part two.

Beware, this thing stinks, wanted to warn all and see if anyone else received it.

Sherriff midnite

DEFINITELY a scam.
very similar to the scam a few months back (which may be still going on), where "paypal" sends an email about a security update. it redirects you to a page that looks every bit like paypal, but asks for a bunch of info like midnite said. i can't even remember what it was that tipped me off on that one. these guys are getting really crafty.

Woah!

That's a worrying development. I had something very similar from 'eBay', but noticed it was pretending to be from the American site. As I'm a member of eBay.co.uk,
which is a different division, it was easy to ignore it. Companies like eBay, Paypal, Hotmail etc. don't make life easy though as they keep changing the look of their pages.

Always keep an eye out for that little security 'lock' icon when making a secure transaction. The lack of one is a dead giveaway.

Trader Woody

If you forward the message including headers to [email protected] Ebay will act quickly to protect others who may have been fooled. Here's the message you'll get in response when you report this:

Thank you for writing regarding the email you received that appeared to be from eBay.

As you already suspected, this email was not sent by eBay nor endorsed by us in anyway. Sadly, these emails are the result of a fraudulent entity who primarily targets members who are using or have used their email address as their eBay User ID. I am sure you already know this, but please allow me to reiterate that eBay will NEVER ask for your private information, including passwords, in an email format. As a reminder, if we ever request information from you, we will always direct you back to the eBay site to enter this information. With very few exceptions, you can submit this through your "My eBay" pages.

We do take these offenses very seriously and will make sure that appropriate action is taken against those responsible. Let me assure you that these emails and associated websites are reported quickly and in turn sent to our Fraud Legal Team for an aggressive investigation.

Often times we are able to contact the web site hosts and have the sites shut down before most members have a chance to even try to go there.

This is not always the case, but we do work actively and aggressively to pursue these fraudulent entities. Please keep in mind that eBay is a public company and not associated with any legislative or police entities. We rely on the same agencies you do to pursue these fraudulent entities.

We have found that member's who have used a PayPal payment logo in their auctions have also exposed their email address. Now that eBay has acquired PayPal we are working quickly to remove this vulnerability.

If you should receive another email like this in future, please re-submit your concern through our web form using the link below:

http://pages.ebay.com/help/basics/select-RS.html

or forward the message to [email protected].

Again, thank you for your efforts to help keep eBay a safe place to trade. Please let me know if you will require additional information or assistance.

Regards,

Trudy
eBay SafeHarbor
Investigations Team

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eBay
Your Personal Trading Community (tm)

---

Important: eBay will not ask you for sensitive personal information (such as your password, credit card and bank account numbers, Social Security numbers, etc.) in an email. Learn more account protection tips at:

http://www.pages.ebay.com/help/account_protection.html

[ Edited by: Suburban Hipster on 2003-05-22 06:10 ]

I rec'd that same 'Important Account Information' message last week and thought it looked suspicious myself. One of the giveaways was that it didn't have the little "padlock" icon in the corner. However, I responded to it anyhow, giving it just a bunch of bullshit info, including "Fuckyouasshole" as my account name and password, which it accepted. Then I called eBay to report it. Midnite, what number do you call? I rarely have trouble getting through to eBay. I NEVER do any eBay or PayPal account updates online without a rep on the phone with me. In fact, some updates you can do simply over the phone, so you know they're legit.

I recieved one. To get revenge I put a curse on the sender with my special voodoo doll.

Doc Z,

re: *Midnite, what number do you call? *

Number? No number, tried emailing them. Did not even think they had phone numbers at eBay, finding an email to inquire on any variety of issues is like finding the Yeti. I did find an email address for privacy issues, which seemed appropos here, and got the respnse that was posted above.

A "spoof" as Ebay calls it, yep. I am wondering why it is not on the newsire, covered somewhere, as was the Paypal scam from a few weeks ago. It was a good scam, very well-done, save for the URL. I am sure they got a bunch of real info from less suspecting folks.

Like all bad criminals they went over the line, got greedy and stupid. Asking for the PIN, and your credit limit? Stupid. My bet, it's a group out of Nigeria, the world's leader in credit/identity fraud.

midnite

Oh man! I gave them all my info! I'm soooo stupid. I guess that means I'm going to lose that $20 Million that guy in Africa put into my account when I gave him all my info and pretended to be the long lost son of that dead guy.

Oh well, easy come, easy go.

well, i should still have my 20 mil coming from "Mr. Kofi Joo."
(that's the actual name in one of the emails. who the hell would believe that one?)

Well, if the Olympics had credit card fraud as an event team Nigeria would win Gold. Probably win Silver and Bronze too. Everyone needs a niche, for some reason the Nigerians are primo fraudsters.

The Hell's Angels are first-rate, uh, chemists. Some of my Irish relations have an affinity for home improvement. The list goes on...

midnite, learned way too much at the U.S Attorney's Office. Now I trust no one.

I've gotten several Nigerian e-mails lately, including the one from Mr. Kofi Joo that Rain mentioned. I always reply by saying, "You may already be a big winner in the FBI's Nigerian Fraud Sweepstakes." I can't believe there are people in this world gullible enough to fall for that sh*t. I think P.T. Barnum may have been a little low on the sucker count, probably should be "there's one born every 34 seconds."

i just got a new scam in the mail - just now:

Dear Valued Customer:

You were the high bidder on eBay item #701511790,
"18K ITALIAN BYZANTINE FRENCH CLASP NECKLACE."
This email is to notify you that the seller of this
item, [email protected], has requested a credit
for the final value fee ("FVF"), indicating that
payment has not been received for this item.

As a result of this seller's FVF credit request
(Non-Paying Bidder claim), you are receiving your
first Non-Paying Bidder("NPB") Warning. If you
receive a 3rd NPB Warning, your account will be
suspended indefinitely.

As our User Agreement explains, if you are the high
bidder on any item, you are expected to honor your
bid and are obligated to complete the transaction.
Our Non-Paying Bidder Policy exists to help us enforce
our User Agreement with respect to non-paying bidders.
For details about eBay's NPB Policy, go to:

http://pages.ebay.com/help/community/npb.html

If you believe you have received this NPB Warning in
error, please review the Non-Paying Bidder appeals
instructions within our online Help desk at:

http://pages.ebay.com/help/community/appeal-npb.html

If this transaction has been completed, please ask the
seller to contact us, using the NPB Warning Removal form,
located at:

http://cgi3.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?RemoveNPBWarningShow

Regards,

eBay SafeHarbor Team

as if.

On 2003-05-21 23:35, midnite_tiki wrote:
I have contacted Ebay, which is harder to do than Chinese math,
Sherriff midnite

If you go to the Ebay.com front page you will see a link that says "Live Help" http://altfarm.mediaplex.com/ad/ck/1065-8992-5715-46?ck=help You can chat with an ebay rep and they are quite helpful.

Rain, that's not a scam. You just gotta stop shopping for Byzantine jewellery when you are drunk!

not just plain old byzantine - italian byzantine french!

and besides, i only bid on chinese phoenician mexican jewelry when i'm drunk. :wink:

It's not part of the identity fraud scheme, but it still peeses me off. What? Why the ending of auctions early phenom:

Hawaiian Inn mugs

Just aggravating.

midnite

Midnite,
That auction ended early because that seller had those mugs for 5.99 each in her space at an antique mall and couldn't sell them. As such, she opened the auction at $24.95 for all four in the hopes that she could sell them on eBay for at least what she was originally asking for in her antique mall space.

I emailed her and offered her $10.00 each ($40.00 total) which was 60% more than her original asking price if she closed the auction for me. And she did - can't wait to get them. Oh wait - I'm just kidding.

**Poly-Pop ***

[ Edited by: PolynesianPop on 2003-05-26 13:42 ]

http://www.theonion.com/onion3920/wdyt_3920.html

this is hilarious AND timely. check out the second one in the second column.

Back to the scam topic...here's how the Nigerians do it.

http://j-walk.com/blog/docs/conference.htm