WARNING: strange letter purportedly from ebay member

mmmsc

mmmsc

O.G.
Feb 1, 2007
9,398
93
#1
I have gotten two messages purporting to be from an ebay member that won an item from me. And it gives me a link to click on for reply. This is obviously spam but it looks real - with Ebay logo and says from ebay member, etc. Do not click on it! I unfortunately erased both of these emails before I could show them for an example here. The 2nd one I got today said "Do you take Paypal for item # such and such that I won?" I have not been selling anything, so I know this is a scam/hack attempt of some sort. But it does look pretty convincing. It is NOT in official "My Ebay messages" but if you weren't aware, someone could easily click on it.
If/when I get another one, I will post it here.
 
#4
i good way to check to see if these types of emails are scams are to hover over the links in the email. generally all the links go the same url which is nothing related to the actual email. you should be able to tell by the url address if the email is legit or not.

at least that's what i do anyways.. if i get something from ebay.. or paypal....wells fargo... the links within the email give it away.
 
#5
I think I got something similar to this-it was an email from Paypal, saying that I purchased a laptop or something, and then the buyer's name and address was completely different from mine. Then a while ago, someone on eBay motor site emailed me about some car parts that I'm supposedly selling. I logged into the official Paypal and eBay site, confirmed that the above claims are false, and just deleted the emails as spams.

The most recent one, however, was an unauthorized purchase; Paypal and the seller emailed me to alert about the inconsistency between the buyer's name+address, and the name of the account (mine) the money is coming from. Fortunately PP was able to get the $$ back to my bank, but it was really scary, as the charge was over $1K. One can never be too careful these days...
 
#8
lovingmybags said:
I think I got something similar to this-it was an email from Paypal, saying that I purchased a laptop or something, and then the buyer's name and address was completely different from mine. Then a while ago, someone on eBay motor site emailed me about some car parts that I'm supposedly selling. I logged into the official Paypal and eBay site, confirmed that the above claims are false, and just deleted the emails as spams.

The most recent one, however, was an unauthorized purchase; Paypal and the seller emailed me to alert about the inconsistency between the buyer's name+address, and the name of the account (mine) the money is coming from. Fortunately PP was able to get the $$ back to my bank, but it was really scary, as the charge was over $1K. One can never be too careful these days...
Click to expand...
Can you laborate on what happened there? That is so damn scary. I suspect this was someone hijacking your acct. somehow. Esp. if you sell a lot of stuff, you would probably think it was legit.
 
#12
mmmsc said:
Can you laborate on what happened there? That is so damn scary. I suspect this was someone hijacking your acct. somehow. Esp. if you sell a lot of stuff, you would probably think it was legit.
Click to expand...

Hi there! I only occasionally buy and sell on eBay, and not often at all; that unauthorized payment happened when I didn't even log in to my PP account for months. Just one day, when I was checking my email, I got the alert from Paypal and the seller who received the payment, saying they think something is off with this transaction, and asked me to confirm. And sure enough, when I checked my bank account, it was reversed back $1K+ in amount. I contacted Paypal immediately; they were also guessing that someone hijacked my account, and told me to change my password immediately. It took them about a week to recover my $$; I'm guessing the seller noticed something was off, and didn't mail/perform the goods/services the fraudster ordered. I remember checking what was it the cheat bought, and it was some software or other from a Swiss site-very bizarre. The PP representative sent me their 6-digit security key for free due to this incident, and I have to say it's kept me safe so far! Keeping fingers crossed.
 
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