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YOU ARE HERE:>>Collectors' Resourses>>Buying on eBay page 2
From Tim
21st August 06
The mail below is an example of the devious nature of phishing mails now being sent out. Obviously I have not sold any such item as this, but the automatic response is to log in to see exactly what this guy is talking about...
The seller is a real eBay ID, and the item really is the card stated, but NONE of the links in the mail actually lead to eBay - if you attempted to log in through any of them your password would be compromised.
As mentioned a few days ago, it is worth entering eBay through a browser window and checking your 'my messages' folder EVERY TIME before responding to a message that appears to come from eBay.
---- Original Message -----
From: eBay Member: vn19682
To: tim@...
Sent: Monday, August 21, 2006 5:12 PM
Subject: Message from eBay Member Regarding Item #130003285894
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Respond to this
Other cautionary advice about online auctions
BEWARE Shipping Scams
Be careful about sending payment to sellers from abroad, particularly sellers who ask you to wire money through Western Union.
One common scam, popular among scammers in Russia, Eastern Europe, and Southeast Asia, is for the seller to tell a skeptical buyer to make out the funds in the name of the buyer's wife or sister, a name not known to the seller. The seller says that this way he'll be able to check with Western Union to find out that the funds were sent to him, so he'll ship the piece, but he won't be able to collect the funds without Western Union getting an OK from the buyer after he receives the coin.
A related scam is for the seller to ask the buyer to email him when he has sent the funds through Western Union but without revealing Western Union's money transfer control number until he receives the coin.What happens in the above cases is the scammer claims the funds but doesn't ship. Western Union doesn't require any information for a recipient to claim funds except the amount of money expected and the origination city, state, and country.
Another scam involving shipping is the creation of fake shipping sites, such as KLM Express and Prompt Express. Scammers have used these sites to "prove" that they sent the item and that you can send them payment for it. After they receive your payment, the sites disappear along with your money.
BEWARE fake escrow agents
If you do use an escrow service, you need to be careful about scams involving fake escrow sites, such as Golden-Escrow.com (meant to be confused with the legitimate escrow service GoldenEscrow.com) and Escrow-is.com. You think you're sending your money to an independent third party, but you're actually sending it right to the crook. The above two sites have been shut down, though new fake escrow sites open up.
For a list of fake escrow sites and other auction fraud information, check out
If you do use an escrow site, as a buyer, it's best to suggest the escrow service yourself and to make sure it's a legitimate one.
BEWARE hijacked Accounts
One eBay scam involves hijacking the eBay account of a seller with a good feedback record by deceitfully obtaining his password. One possible tip-off during the auction is that the seller is auctioning a pricey item or items completely unlike those he's auctioned before.
Another is that the seller previously only bought on eBay, never sold. A possible tip-off upon completion of the auction is that you're asked to send payment to a location completely different from the location listed in the auction. If you have questions about the auction, send a message to the seller through eBay. If his answer continues to arouse suspicion, don't send your money.
eBay has recently tightened up its security features to try to prevent this type of fraud. Now, if an automated password-cracking program fails to guess a password on the twentieth try, eBay flashes a code on screen that you have to type in manually. Despite this safety feature, it's still best to use a password that's difficult to crack.
Sellers can still be tricked into revealing their passwords to scammers by clicking on a link in an official looking e-mail message that appears to come from eBay, a practice known as "phishing." They're directed to a "spoof" site that looks just like eBay but is solely designed to obtain people's passwords. To prevent yourself from falling victim like this and ruining your good feedback, always go to eBay and related sites such as PayPal through your own bookmark or favourite or by manually typing in the site's address.
BEWARE Stolen text or images
As fraudulent dealers are here for a short time to rip off as many people as possible as quickly as possible, they never take time to do their own
research (then again, how do you research a fake?). So they steal the text from other eBay sellers. My regular customers let me know when they see the latest dishonest seller using my auction text. About once a month a new dishonest seller will start listing items on eBay
Have a look at
Some encouraging news!
Can only hope that the sellers of the dreadful fake antiquities on eBay are called to account as well.
STOP PRESS | |||
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Suspended jail term a blow to fraud on eBay | |||
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Angela Makki duped insurance underwriter Zena Bailey over the auction website. At Hove Crown Court last month she was given a six-month suspended prison sentence and ordered to refund the cash. | |||
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31/05/2005 | |||
What you can do if you are ripped off online
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