eBay Users Beware

Cantus Rock

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Just a little reminder to all people who do business on eBay to be aware of the scam artists that try to get your personal information through disguised emails.

I bring this point up, being that my mother was nearly taken in by a scam, and could have been a victim of identity fraud. To those who don't know, this is how it works (at lease this is how it worked in the situation with my mother):

An email will come that looks very, very much like an official email from eBay. The email address matches up, and the letters wording is very similar. The letter says something like this:

Your Account has been marked (flagged) as being inaccurate or fraudulent. To renew your account information, click the supplied link

Lucky for my mom the link supplied wasn't working. The link was something obviously unrelated to eBay, being it was a series of letters, numbers, and % signs. (I know % are used where there is a space in a URL, but eBay very rarely has that, and even if they do its usualy 1 in the middle of a typical eBay URL). Then there will be an (800) number listed. Again, luckily for my mother that wasn't working (I think the scammers might have been caught and shut down before my mom got the email).

She called eBay's real number and talked to customer support. The nice lady said that the email did not come from eBay. She walked me through the steps of sending it to SafeHarbor (eBay's security branch), and said they'd investigate it.

Now, they picked the wrong person to scam in my mother because A) Her account info is flawless, and B) While she isn't fully computer literate, I am. But this is a warning for anyone else who might be at risk. Be careful. I wouldn't want any of you nice people to become victims of Identity Fraud. :smile:

-Matt
 

Gonzo

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Yeah, I get a lot of e-mails that say they're from "eBay" something or another, but none of them have been legit--be very cautious. Better safe than sorry. Or something like that.

Quinnnnnn
 

Cantus Rock

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Not a problem my friend, glad to help serve and protect (in a non-police like way) :smile:

-Matt
 

jah742

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the same thing just happened to me today. i forwarded the email to spoof@ebay.com they wrotte back saying it was a scam. the email was just as mentioned above, saying my account had been suspended for a fraudulent or incoorect info such as a beeper #, an expired phone #, or wrong bank info. the link led me to a re-registration page, but i wasn't about to be fooled. i went to ebay, and logged in just fine. i even bid on a figure! i wrote back to ebay, and they will look into it. beware the scammers! :boo:
 

Malachy

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Please, please do not trust any thing you get in e-mail. Wanna see how easy it is to send a fraudelant e-mail? I made a script in PHP that does it for you, it's at http://krustofski.com/fakey.php. I'm 14 and have very little experience in PHP. (I'm most a Java man myself.) The people who will be scamming you will be much older and will have been working with PHP/mySQL for years; they can put hoaxes together that are virtually flawless.
 

MuppetsRule

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It's not just e-bay that is spoofed. I have received e-mails asking me to verify my information for credit cards, paypal info, e-bay, etc. almost on a weekly basis. You name it and somebody is trolling for information. NEVER NEVER NEVER reply to these e-mails or use the links in them. If you need to verify information go directly to the website thru your browser.

It's really sad that people do this but all they need is one or two people to respond to the millions of e-mails they send out. :mad:
 
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