New scam on eBay

[Jason Harris 31]

This week, I discovered a new scam on eBay that I unwittingly participated in on both sides. Both of these products were higher end, so it's possible they are targeting higher dollar values.

First, eBay suspended my privileges until I could confirm whether I had made the following listing: "7202433131 2004 Ezgo , HUMMER, 4 Cycle." That wasn't mine, so eBay took it down and then gave back my privileges after corresponding with me directly.

Almost simulaneously, I found a listing for a projector with a low opening bid, but it was a private auction. I had participated in a private auction once before; basically, you have to be pre-approved to bid. So I hit the Ask Seller A Question button and requested authorization to bid. I shortly received an email that roughly said the following:

"The guy is from Europe and has had problems with non-paying bidders, so he's going this route to make sure people are serious. The price will be X dollars including shipping. If interested, he will send an invoice through eBay."

Now, I admit I didn't know how one sends an invoice through eBay without an auction, but I know that people can end listings early to sell to someone, so I figured it was possible. I then checked his feedback -- 100% -- and Sellers Other Auctions -- he mostly was selling antler chandeliers but he had 2-3 other projectors listed. Things seemed to check out fine, so I asked him to send an invoice.

At first glance, it looked legitimate. However, when I saw he wanted me to send cash via Western Union to Romania, I became very suspicious. I then noticed a few misspellings as well as no eBay Item number. I contacted eBay and they told me they have no record of the guy or his email address, although eBay is having a tough time accepting that their servers were hacked.

That is obviously what happened, since I did a search, clicked on a listing, saw Seller's Other Auctions, as well as clicking on the Ask Seller A Question button, which sent my email directly to this guy, rather than the antler seller with the 100% feedback.

Anyway, I doubt these hackers are going to target a pair of hockey gloves at $20, but please be aware that this scam is fairly sophisticated if it's hacking eBay's servers.

[Edge 0]

Sad that there are people like that. I've been scammed for a couple high dollar things in similar ways like this. Good call checking out all the angles before you made the purchase. Internet is a dangerous place to buy.

[ThePurpleCobra 0]

I got an email from Ebay warning me not to pay some guy because it was a scam and also gave me advice and said never pay someone with western union unless you know them personally

[toroytorero 0]

I've seen this scam before too. and it was also for high end merch. they were selling really high end mountain and road bike frames and some dude went for it..same exact scenario were they had to send cash to some east european country.

[jay 1]

Another common scam lately has been stealing the images and content from an old auction for something valuable and then re-posting it from an overseas account. They'll even run a few transactions so that the feedback looks legit first and then try to get you to pay with some weird form of payment. Also, fake second chance offers are very common as well. Someone sennds an offer to you on an item you bid on and didn't win, only its not really the seller, it's some third party. I've seen this a few times for vintage guitars and amps.

[Dante2004 0]

I encountered the same scam, just on a car. I tried to bid on several cars that were listed somewhere in the US. Only later does the seller contact you and say it is currently somewhere in Europe and he will ship it for your inspection after you pay a deposit. OR, the car is in the US but he is in Europe and with a deposit, he will meet you in where the car is and show it because it is supposedly in a storage area that he needs to be present to allow you to enter. So I knew these were all scams...or at least too much hassle.

But then I bid on a car that was located about an hour away. I was going to be in that town the next day, so I suggested to meet the seller face to face. I got an e-mail from the account owner saying he does not own the car, did not post the auction and has no idea how it got posted under his name. Simultaneously, I am getting e-mails from the "seller" (hacker) giving me some excuse as to why he is out of town right now but the car is still for sale.

Damn...E-bay was such a great place too. I hope they get all this cleared up.

[BK 0]

Its all too easy to get scammed on ebay now a days.. the biggest threat is the sucker ebayers who don't have common sense. Want to see what im talking about? Go to you ebay/paypal email address and go into your junk folder. Chances are you have about 10 or so scam emails that LOOK legit from ebay saying that your account is suspended for something and you need to click a link, login and unlock your account or update your credit card info. Now I am a network tech and I know a thing or two so I went ahead and clicked the link from a secure computer and logged in using bogus info. Right away, that told me that they have my login and password (my bogus one), after I had logged in, it asked me to update my cc info, social number and other personal information. I wanted to see where the site was originated and it was somewhere in the philippines. I quickly used one of my *ehem*... tools to flood his internet connection and knock him off the web for a bit. :)

if you think about it though, if they get 1 credit card and somebodies ebay info, they have a really good in for more scamming.

[Jason Harris 31]

Damn...E-bay was such a great place too. I hope they get all this cleared up.

Based on the emails I received from eBay, their first line of defense (Joe Worker) wouldn't consider the fact they had been hacked. Instead, they assumed I was a novice and kept sending emails telling me to watch out for phishing emails.

However, there is a HUGE difference between someone noticing I had bid on an item and sending me a Second Chance offer versus someone able to insert two to three listings under someone else's user name on eBay. The latter is a serious security breach.

if you think about it though, if they get 1 credit card and somebodies ebay info, they have a really good in for more scamming.

He didn't get my credit card number but, given the timing of when my username was hijacked, one thing that I think probably occcured is when I sent my request to participate in his private auction it alerted him to my high feedback.

It becomes self-sustaining at that point. List a fake auction, require it to be private, wait for people sending links to their feedback, cherry pick from the best of the bunch, then hijack eBay's servers and list under someone else's username.