Ebay - Fraud warning

[GhostShip]

I was just roaming the web as usual looking for important bits of news and this seems to be one of those snippets we all pay no heed to -  forewarned is forearmed folks.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4749806.stm

Computing Which? said the link to eBay's Safety Centre had to be made more visible. It said more than 130 incidents were reported to the UK Metropolitan Police each month.

The magazine's editor, told BBC News a recent case saw a gang steal nearly £200,000 from unwitting eBay users.
"It was a six-man gang, they sent e-mails claiming to be from eBay, and tricked eBay users into revealing their passwords and account details.
"The gang then assumed the identity of those legitimate eBay vendors with reliable sales histories, and were able to offer non-existing goods such as Rolexes and laptop computers for sale, only to disappear with the money," she said.

"Many people see eBay as a bit of fun, like Friends Reunited, and no one's denying that it's quick and easy to use. But there's plenty of opportunity for criminals to cash in too."
The magazine said using the site's online money transfer system, Paypal, was safest because it did not involve divulging bank account details.

But eBay said the majority of the fraudulent cases did not take place on the site.
A statement said: "We have been led to believe that, in most of the cases, the users were contacted via e-mail - rather than on the eBay site.
"Payments were made using money transfer services such as Western Union, which are banned on eBay because they are not traceable."

I hope you all take note here of the old saying," if something sounds too good to be true .... it usually is".

[QueenDragon]

I have actually gotten a few of those myself. I must say, they looked pretty good; had a link that looked real, and sounded very professional. I sent them to Ebay customer service too. It stated my account was going to be suspended, if I didn't re-evaluate my info. What's scary is there may be hundreds of people out there that fall for that everyday!! I watch any email requesting personal info as a rule. I'd rather waste the time contacting the business, than even think about giving them my log in. If they have to ask your log in info, something is not right!

[GhostShip]

Hmm that sounds like its a common trick, I wonder how many others are taken in like this 

[KM]

many people fall for many things that you might think are obvious, that's also the reason why so many people have spyware and toolbars etc on their systems...

[QueenDragon]

It's about the same as old telemarketing scams; If you can provide small snippets of information, just to make the target "buy in" to the scam and make it legit, a lot of people will fall for it. I should know,  i work for a customer service/telemarketing firm. It would be very easy to just provide small pieces of info, to sound like you really have all of their information, and they give you anything you want, hook line and sinker. I've got fraud emails from different banks, etc....But a lot of them I have never heard of, or am a customer. same with ebay. This is just a new form of scams. Just like the ebay email for instance; send a million emails, that look legit, with a link that actually looks like an ebay link, how many people will you reach that probably has an ebay login? same with the banks. A lot of people don't pay attention, see the logo, and panic about their account. They hoooked onto the "buy in" and fell for it. Create the interest in buy in, with a scare, and you can go wild. Not only that, with someone's ebay login, it's a good possibility that you can access paypal too; many people will use the same login for both, instant access to accounts. People really need to be made aware of these things by companies, if they value their consumer base.