Ebay Spoof! Please read!!

[Lady Hobbs]

I have received several emails lately that some foreign person has been trying to access my account. I ignored the message and refused to even open it.

Today I got another announcement that my ebay account has been closed until I paid $14.95 thru my PayPal account immediately or send a check to this address in ILL. This email further states that Glodal Credit Services has been contacted and my account will go into collections.

I contacted Ebay since I owe them nothing and found out all these emails have been spoof and only a means of accessing my account information. All emails come with the heading: ebay.com so I can see that a person would open this email without suspecting anything. Because I am suspcious by nature, I did not!

Ebay reported to me that any email from them will be in the message folder under MY EBAY and to ignore anything not in that mailbox. Also to change user names and passwords immediately upon getting spoofs. Anytime you get anything suspicious, report to them immediately.

Just be on your toes and not open anything you get.

[Drumachine09]

Wow, that sucks. Im trying to sell a djembe, and the guy that wants to buy it is kinda shifty. Hes like "ill have my banker send you a check, then you via money wire, send my shipper x amount, and then they will ship it to me". I feel like telling the guy to go take a hike, but if it is legit, im out 300 bones.

[Lady Hobbs]

If he has agreed to pay according to the terms you set down, PayPal or whatever, and he has not paid you in the fashion you requested, report this as an unpaid item and let the resolution center take care of this problem.

OR.......

Withdraw your bid from him. He's being an ass. When you sell something, you sell on your terms, not theirs. Did you specify the terms of the sale and how it was to be paid? If he is not complying, he is in default.

I had a store on Ebay for quite some time and you run into some nuts. I didn't bother with anyone who wanted to jerk me around.

PS......save all correspondence from him

[Drumachine09]

Oh, im selling it on craigslist, but i still think this guy is a nut. He said he is going to send me a check in the mail. BEFORE I DO ANYTHING i am going to cash the check, pocket my three hundred, and then follow up. As long as i get my money, i dont care what happens to my djembe, cause i won a drawing for a new one!


Does the plan sound legit? Im still a bit wary of him.

[Lady Hobbs]

OK......I see. Yes, always make sure check is good before sending anything. It's also good to get a postal money order for purchases but they must be a postal. That way you know it's been paid for immediately. Problem with personal checks is you are the one who gets stuck with them as you are the one who got the money from the bank. It's you they go after and up to you to go after the other guy. Bad deal.

[Severus]

That sucks. Glad you didnt fall for it. There are scams with everything anymore. I had a problem with my paypal account a few months ago.

[cocoa_pleco]

MAN, what scammers wont do.

I remember i ordered a huge ebay shipment from some guy, and a month later i asked where it was since i never got it, and he simply wrote "fu*k off", and he even knows i paid him

[Lady Hobbs]

I hope you reported him! Yes, people are jerks anymore.

[cocoa_pleco]

i sure did report him!

[crackatinny]

A cousin of mine had his ebay account tapped into a couple of years back, by answering an email asking to update his details on the link provided, he updated them and then his password was changed by the people who sent the email, he could not even contact ebay about it because he was locked out, I contacted them on his behalf through my account, but it still took months to sort it out.

Lesson: NEVER go into your ebay account through a link in an email.

[Lady Hobbs]

It says we should periodally change out account name and passwords. I've changed mine so much I can't think of anything else to use that I could actually remember without looking it up each time.

[GoldLenny]

The Craigslist thing is a scam. Craigslist has warnings all over the place on their site explaining these scams and how to report the scammers.

They gist of their scame is that they send you a fraudulent check printed by them to look real (and oftentimes using a legitimate account number from a real person or business account) and you deposit it in your account and send them the item. Then the check comes back 10 days later with a big red FRAUDULENT stamp on it and you are out of your 300 bones. Make them pay in CASH or via PayPal, Western Union Moneygram, etc. Heck, even cash and money orders are being printed by modern computers to appear very realistic so if you can't go to the issuing bank and cash the check/money order, you are taking a chance. Some of them even overpay you "by accident" and notify you to still deposit the check and send them the difference with the item so then they have your item and some of your cash which you will be out when the bogus check/money order is finally charged back to your account.

[Drumachine09]

So just tell him to shove it up his arse then?

[kenyth]

I got nailed a total of three times on Ebay. Once, the item was a piece of junk, but I was able to repair it. The second time, it was a scam and I lost $50. We managed to get her arrested. The third time I lost $200 because the well established company declared bankruptcy. They lost their cheap supplier, and had a bunch of outstanding orders. New suppliers had their prices too high and they had to supply the outstanding orders at a loss. Then they started refunding some. Then they ran out of borrowed money and closed their doors. The scary thing is that many businesses operate like this. They sell and collect money for product they don't even actually have. As soon as you buy it, they buy it or have it drop shipped. They operate on a thin margin. If something unexpected happens, they go in the red quickly.

Don't even get me started on how contractors run things. The down payment on your new project generally pays for the finishing work on the last guys project. As soon as they run out of jobs, the last guy gets screwed.

[Lady Hobbs]

The contractors in FL after the hurricane were just awful. So many lost all their money to slam-dunk workers. Now, you can not even paint a house or mow a lawn without a license. The old days of having the kid down the street mow your lawn is over.

I've read that money orders can also be forged and that postal money orders are safer and apparently have a "safe seal" inbedded in them making forgery in them impossible. But I always go with PayPal. The transaction is instant and you have buyer protection.

I would definately tell this guy, Drumachine, if he sends you a check that you must wait 10 days to make sure the check is cleared.

If you have a checking or saving account, set up an account with PayPal or tell him Postal Money Order only.

[kenyth]

The contractors in FL after the hurricane were just awful. So many lost all their money to slam-dunk workers. Now, you can not even paint a house or mow a lawn without a license. The old days of having the kid down the street mow your lawn is over.

I've read that money orders can also be forged and that postal money orders are safer and apparently have a "safe seal" inbedded in them making forgery in them impossible. But I always go with PayPal. The transaction is instant and you have buyer protection.

I would definately tell this guy, Drumachine, if he sends you a check that you must wait 10 days to make sure the check is cleared.

If you have a checking or saving account, set up an account with PayPal or tell him Postal Money Order only.


I work at a Credit Union. Forged cashiers checks and Money Orders, including Postal MO's are now the big thing in the scamming world. There were too many limitations placed on Personal Checks. So now there is no such thing as a "Certified Funds" paper item. Only Electronic Funds Transfers are certified now. All paper items are treated with the same precautions as far as releasing the funds goes.

Before you go cursing your financial institution, you have to realize that they take the brunt of the cost of fraud. The financial institution that accepts the check is responsible to return the money to the "issuer", should the item turn out to be fraudulent. They can then try to recover the funds from the person who gave them the item. That usually winds up being a fraction of what was lost, if that.