eBay SCAM Alert - Ducati.ms

RotoRooterGuy · Jan 28th, 2006, 7:35 pm

I thought it would be appropriate to post this here since many of you buy parts for your Duc on eBay or are otherwise members.

As you may know, many scammers try to get your PayPal and eBay account names and passwords so they can drain your PayPal account, and on eBay, open fraudulent auctions and have people send them money on the auctions, all in your name.

There are many ways they can attempt to get your numbers, such as with "phishing" sites, which means they e-mail you, tell you to log on for any number of reasons, then they log your account name and password as you enter it on the legitimate looking site.

Over the last few years I have seen them get more and more creative. One attempt that just came in was an e-mail from eBay saying they were giving me $65 because I was a valued customer. It looks very convincing and is quite creative by scammer standards.

While I should be a valued eBay member, I knew right away that eBay does not give $65, or any amount, to anyone simply because eBay wants to reward people. eBay does not give money away, if anything, they think of more and more ways to take money, not give it out.

Anyway, I thought some of you might get caught up on this legit looking scam. Fall for it, you are toast.

Bonus Tip: generally, no company will e-mail you and tell you to log on with a provided link. If they do, they usually reference you in the e-mail by your name, so that you know it is the company contacting you [generally, phishers send out e-mails as SPAM and do not know your name, so their e-mails will NOT contain ID info or address you by name].

Bonus Tip: most companies tell you that to be safe, never press a link in an e-mail to get to a company site. Instead, long on directly from your web browser or "favorites/bookmarks" links.

On, by the way, I belong to Netcraft which is a policing site on the Net. You report suspected phishing sites to them, they investigate and shut them down. eBay, PayPal, banks, etc. pay them a lot of money to police the Net and shut down the phishing sites. Netcraft uses people like me, a simple Net user, to report sites.

You may want to consider becoming a member. It really feels good when I report the scammers, knowing they will be shut down within about an hour after I report them.

http://news.netcraft.com/

J24Joe · Jan 28th, 2006, 9:14 pm

Hadn't heard of netcraft.

I usually forward the scammers stuff to spoof@ebay.com.

It's good to know there is an organization dedicated to more than just Ebay scams.

gitarman · Jan 29th, 2006, 11:12 am

I get something similar from a PayPal scam nearly everyday. You're right the scammers are definitely getting more creative.

apagios · Jan 29th, 2006, 11:24 am

watch out for the address bar where the http:// is listed they can spoof that now too, ive gotten some phishing crap posing as citibank, and the url is masked to say citibank.com, but i know citibank never emails me asking for account info, and also something to check, a lot of phishing sends 1 big pic, most official stuff from ebay and othe rlegit company emails are written in html, not just an attached image with a link.

RotoRooterGuy · Jan 29th, 2006, 7:52 pm

[QUOTE=apagios]watch out for the address bar where the http:// is listed they can spoof that now too...QUOTE]

You are correct, when one is on the supposed legit page, the URL can easily be spoofed to make it look as though one is on the legit site.

The one I posted as an example was sophisticated in some ways, not in others, such as not disguising the URL. Guy was either a dumb ass or too lazy.

I never press links in e-mails because the scammers are becoming more and more sophisticated.

On any of my accounts, if the company contacts me by e-mail [sometimes they do], I open Internet Explorer and press the favorite link, which I know is legit because I created the Favorite.

http://www.paypalsucks.com/paypal-spoof-sites.shtml

http://www.paypalsucks.com/forums/

I am way cautious because despite PayPal and eBay FALSELY creating the impression that you are protected against fraud, in fact, if you read their terms of service closely, you will see that all losses are your problem, not theirs.

See, e.g. for an expose, http://paypalsucks.com/

Roto [the non-Watergate plumber guy]

Jan 29th, 2006, 10:36 pm

Anyone with common sence should be able to tell its a bullshit email the very first sentence. not to mention the fact ebay would never give away money.

"You'll be able to use this to buy items on ebay..."

yeah...sure...just bid on whatever you want and Ebay will take care of sending the payment to the seller...LOL

RotoRooterGuy · Jan 30th, 2006, 4:23 am

Quote:

Originally Posted by greg2731

Anyone with common sence should be able to tell its a bullshit email the very first sentence. not to mention the fact eBay would never give away money.

"You'll be able to use this to buy items on ebay..."

yeah...sure...just bid on whatever you want and Ebay will take care of sending the payment to the seller...LOL

Guess it depends on the definition of common sense. When it comes to the Net and computers, most people are total noobs. So "common sense" for Net and computer users can best be defined as "having no sense."

Con games have been around since Roman times and it seems even the smartest people, with loads of common sense, have a lapse of good judgment at times, especially on the Net. Sometimes we all just get caught with our guard down one time or another.

The one that almost go me was when they would send viruses via an e-mail that said "e-mail delivery error." I send loads of e-mails for business, so I almost opened one attachment in an e-mail, the attachment supposedly the message I had sent. I was going to open it to see which e-mail it was that did not make it through. I'm not sure what caused me to pause and become suspicious, but I was a click away from opening the attachment containing the virus.

But yeah, what tipped me off about the eBay gift was that I have been an eBay member since 1998 and I have 1350 feedbacks. I knew right away that eBay was not about to send me $65, even though I have paid them thousands in listing /sale and PayPal fees. But I could see a noob with common sense, but unfamiliar with eBay, thinking "how cool is this, eBay thinks I'm swell."

mals900ss · Jan 30th, 2006, 5:18 am

I was gong to check out that net safe site, then realised it was a link in an email.. so fearing it was a phishing site I didn't reported it!!!

Just kidding RRG..

but I did google it first... ahahaha

Thanks for the tips

Mal

Gforce · Jan 30th, 2006, 11:58 am

If you get a suspicious email from a questionable ebay member, check your ebay mailbox. If it was legit, there will be a copy in that mailbox as well as the one you received via you normal email account with your isp..

RotoRooterGuy · Jan 30th, 2006, 1:22 pm

Quote:

Originally Posted by mals900ss

I was gong to check out that net safe site, then realised it was a link in an email.. so fearing it was a phishing site I didn't reported it!!!

Just kidding RRG..

but I did google it first... ahahaha

Thanks for the tips

Mal

I am not sure how I found out about Netcraft, I think it was through a magazine article in SmartComputing.

I was one of their first laypeople policing the Net, so when I first reported phishing sites, about 18 months ago, they sent me a coffee mug on reaching 10 reported sites, then after 20, they sent me a good quality sweatshirt.

Now, I don't get anything except a monthly chance to win an IPOD. In line with the "I never win anything, ever" situation I have suffered all my life, I've yet to win the IPOD.

I was kinda hoping they would keep giving me free stuff over time, albeit I thought it was kinda weird sending stuff to people with so few reported sites. At the rate I was getting gifts, I thought by 100 reported sites I'd be up to getting a free car.

I'm not sure if they still give out the mugs and sweatshirts.