Strange E-Bay e-mails

[Brian Vuillemenot]

These are e-mails from supposed E-Bay bidders, as if they are asking about something I have up for sale, such as "How much is shipping to California". The latest one is actually more aggressive, something to the effect of "Did you get my last e-mail? When are you going to answer my question?" I'm not quite sure what strategy these people use to scam others, but I definately smell a rat.

[Doug Kerr]

A very common ploy in phishing e-mail messages is to have a link whose visible text looks like a URL, one which seems legitimate, while the actual URL to which the link points is something else (not necessarily an IP address, either).

For example, the link might look like this in the message:

To verify your account, click here: first.national.bank.com/accounts

whereas the actual URL to which the link points is: phish.fry.ng

My e-mail handler (Eudora) will call to my attention onscreen any link in a e-mail message whose visble text has the shape of a URL but is not the same as the URL to which the link points.

Best regards,

Doug

[roteague]

My e-mail handler (Eudora) will call to my attention onscreen any link in a e-mail message whose visble text has the shape of a URL but is not the same as the URL to which the link points.

A modern email program is good to have for these things. Outlook 2007 has some good anti-phishing stuff built in (unfortunately, it hasn't been released to the general public yet).

[wfwhitaker]

I, too, have received a number of questions from "bidders". In one case there were questions from numerous supposed bidders all rolled into one message which looked for all the world like it had come from Ebay. There was also the demanding question accusing me of not replying. All stuff to composed to put the pressure on.

What was different this time is that when I went to log into my Ebay account from the legitimate site, I couldn't! I tried several times even with new browser windows making sure that I was starting at Ebay's url. But to no avail. Someone, it seems, had changed my password. Fortunately my "secret question" had not been compromised and I was able to reset the password. Once I got in, I checked, and the Honda ATV I supposedly was selling was nowhere to be found. Thank goodness!

'Tis the season. Now to go find one of those 10-dollar Ebony auctions!

[Dave Parker]

Firefox's companion mail program is very good at catching these types of phishing emails as well, I got rid of IE and Outlook about a year ago, and have never been happier...

Dave

[Capocheny]

Brian,

These kinds of emails are becoming more and more common... best thing to do is to either forward them to ebay and PayPal or ignore them completely.

Usually best to simply forward the entire message to ebay or PayPal...

Cheers

[Paul Coppin]

I have used Pegasus mailer for about 10 years - its been very clean running, I just keep moving it from platform to platform. I get phishing emails, but none of the problems associated with outlook. Same with IE - havenn't used it seriously for years - Firefox now. Won't even bother correcting code for IE. I still think Bill owes us all our money back.

[walter23]

I've gotten a number of e-mails lately from E-Bay people asking about items that they think I have for sale. However, I have had nothing up for sale in the last year or so there. My E-Bay account appears to be fine- nothing listed for sale- but I'm worried that perhaps someone hijacked my account and is selling stuff with my user ID. Or, perhaps these are just people using the wrong e-mail or a communication glitch from the auction site? Any thoughts or similar experiences out there? Thanks!

If you followed a link in one of those emails and signed in to "ebay" you're screwed - you've just handed over your password to a phishing scam on a fake ebay site. That's the whole point - send you a message that looks like a question from a buyer (using fake header information so that it will appear to come from an ebay email address), with a link to a fake ebay site embedded (usually with something like "log in and respond now."). If you do it, you've just handed over your password.

If you did, go to the real ebay (type "ebay.com" in your browser), log in, and change your password pronto. Do the same with your paypal account if applicable.

[Bill_1856]

If you followed a link in one of those emails and signed in to "ebay" you're screwed - you've just handed over your password to a phishing scam on a fake ebay site. That's the whole point - send you a message that looks like a question from a buyer (using fake header information so that it will appear to come from an ebay email address), with a link to a fake ebay site embedded (usually with something like "log in and respond now."). If you do it, you've just handed over your password.

If you did, go to the real ebay (type "ebay.com" in your browser), log in, and change your password pronto. Do the same with your paypal account if applicable.

Okay -- if they get my password, what can they do with it? (I'm a buyer only on ebay, not a seller.)

[Dave Parker]

Okay -- if they get my password, what can they do with it? (I'm a buyer only on ebay, not a seller.)

They could in Theory set up a sellers account for you, and incur charges and such for you, it is a pretty common scheme they use to post bogus auctions under legitimate user names.

Dave