SCAM targets eBay users
I consider myself pretty cautious when it comes to my personal information and financial transactions. Unfortunately, the SCAM’ers are getting pretty smart.
I recently bid on an item on eBay. I didn’t win the bid and figured “that was that”. Then, over the weekend I received a notice from eBay that the auction completed but the high bidder did not complete the transaction and the seller was offering the item to me (the second highest bidder). Everything was in order and I was thrilled.
I followed the eBay instructions but as the transaction proceeded, I started have questions. I won’t go into all the details but here are some highlights.
The original notification has all the usual eBay tags - they had my eBay ID; it came to the email address I use for eBay auctions; they had the eBay links, etc. Understand, if you looked at the auction, you could not get any eBay IDs from the bid history - all you would see is “Bidder 1″, “Bidder 4″, etc. so the fact that the email had my ID implied they were aware of information internal to eBay.
After contacting the seller to conclude the transaction, I was asked for address information and was told I would receive an eBay message confirming I had accepted the “second change” bid. Then came another message from eBay with all the usual tags and information about the use of an escrow account for the transaction - complete with the steps that would insure the escrow secured the transaction.
I asked about the fact that the transaction was using Western Union rather than PayPal and he explained he was resolving a fraudulent transaction and thus his PayPal account was on hold.
I noticed the Western Union address did not match the reported location of the auction item. The seller explained he was traveling.
I Googled the seller’s name and found an address near where the money was destined. It appeared to be a case of “work address” vs “home address”.
The seller asked to be notified as soon as the funds were transferred. Once he confirmed receipt of the funds, he would ship the auction item. That was odd since the auction clearly stated “item pick up only” and “no shipping”.
The follow up email from the seller repeated he would release the item as soon as he confirmed receipt of the funds. He said, “I will ship using UPS next day service”. That was even more odd since the item is much larger than what I thought UPS would handle (both is size and weight). I checked the UPS site to confirm.
This last mistake on the seller’s part was the red flag of all red flags. Obviously, the seller, was not actually the “seller” !
I contacted eBay fraud alert. Within about 30 minutes they had confirmed the attempt. By this time, the only personal information the “seller” had was my name and address. BUT, the fact he got that much irks me. I can imagine if someone were not as alert.
What is really amazing was that I expressed concern to a colleague right after the initial email and yet it still went on for a while before I put a halt to everything. I’ve since placed an alert on my credit as a safety precaution.
It just goes to show … we build a better mouse trap and the mice get smarter <argh>
