eBay Scammers Up The Ante
by: Stephanie McIntyre
I am surprised that there are so many new scams on eBay
these days. It seems that everyday I get at least one or two
new invitations to fork over my userid, password or credit
card info.
It is as if the scammers think that I actually am that
stupid. Well, as my husband is fond of saying, "I may have
been born yesterday... but I was up all night". There is
very little that you can get past me now as far as an eBay
scam goes. But recently I was caught in a very subtle scam
that was very clever.
It was designed to, of course get information from me that I
did not want anyone to get. I was sent a message that
appeared to come from someone with whom I was involved in a
transaction.
The message had the distinctive look of an eBay email
message with the yellow "RESPOND HERE" button off to the
right. The message was very cryptic, which I later realized
was designed to be evocative and get me to click on the
response button. The message merely said "I've sent the
payment through Paypal when are you going to ship my item?"
it included a link with the item number.
I clicked on the item number thinking that it would take me
to the eBay item that I was selling, which the buyer had
paid for and was waiting to be shipped.
Instead I was taken to an eBay sign-in screen, which seemed
a little different but I went ahead and signed in using my
eBay sign-in id and password.
I went on from there to research the item the buyer was
looking for.
The next morning I awoke and went to check my auction and
saw that in addition to the items I was legitimately selling
on eBay, was an auction for a Porsche. It looked as if this
Porsche was an auction that I was running. I immediately
contacted eBay and they were able to determine that the
auction was fraudulent. They promptly cancelled the
auction.
I was told, by the eBay Customer Service rep, that there
would be less likelihood that this kind of hijacking of my
account, could occur if I were to use the eBay Toolbar.
The eBay toolbar is a piece of software that you download
and attach to your browser which has security included with
it that makes it more difficult for someone send a message
through that looks like it’s from eBay when it’s not.
I may in the future download it, but I currently have 3
toolbars on the top of my browser, and really don't want
another level of "protection" up there right now.
I am still shaking my head over my naiveté. I consider
myself a real eBay professional, after all I have been
trading on the site for wel over 5 years, so getting caught
by a scammer was a real surprise.
It really showed me that the hackers and the scammers always
bring their “A Game”...everyday; I better be sure and bring mine.
About The Author:
Written by Stephanie McIntyre. Her eBay tips and
strategies can be found at eBay Selling
Basics. See more useful news and tips about selling
on eBay at http://www.esalesunlimited.com
August 2006
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