David Posted December 5, 2007 Share Posted December 5, 2007 I have just received the following e-mail from ebay which appears to be genuine.It was sent by Quote "eBay"<[email protected] " Unquote, today the 5th December to my old email address which I no longer use, but which I can still receive.I have never bought or sold anything on ebay, and I did not visit the site on the 3rd December. I did visit the site months ago, but I never set up an account, in part because my French is poor and I could not understand the instructions.I am concerned that someone is buying things on my old e-mail address, and I wonder if anyone can advise me as to what to do, preferably through an English language contact. Alternatively could it be a false e-mail trying to get a response from me to show that the e-mail address is active?The e-mail is shown below. I have not responded to this e-mail, and I have not downloaded it to my outlook express on the computer. I presume that the little square boxes are where the e-mail uses French accents which do not show on my UK computer.Many thanks for any help you can give me.QuoteBonjour, Votre facture mensuelle eBay est maintenant disponible pour consultation en ligne. Date de la facture:�Dec 3, 2007 Montant d�: � 27,00Vous pouvez consulter les d�tails de votre facture et de l'�tat du compte � tout moment en cliquant sur ce lien:�Voir Facture Pour r�f�rence ult�rieure, vous pouvez acc�der � votre facture en proc�dant comme suit: Aller � la page d'accueil. Cliquez sur mon eBay dans le haut de la page, connectez-vous � l'aide de eBay votre ID utilisateur et mot de passe. Cliquez sur le "compte vendeur" (Mon compte ci-dessous dans le menu de navigation de gauche). Cliquez sur le bouton "Facture". Cordialement,2007 eBay Inc UnquoteMany thanks in advance,DavidEdited to remove my e-mail addresses.David Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gluestick Posted December 5, 2007 Share Posted December 5, 2007 Looks like a Phising attack.Ignore!Cyber-Scammers use War Hacking type software to send millions of emails using system generated prefixes on logical mail address suffixes. Subsequent analysis shows which emails were rejected by the Postmaster and which were logical and current.BTW never ever publish your actual email address on an open forum such as this! You have without realising it provided a potential ID thief two critical parts of your ID: your first name and a cogent (live and valid) email address!Same with adding dates of birth, pictures and career details on the profile section.Personally, I would now immediately change your email alias. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Posted December 5, 2007 Author Share Posted December 5, 2007 Many thanks Gluestick,I have removed my e-mail addresses.David Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pickles Posted December 5, 2007 Share Posted December 5, 2007 It is indeed a "phishing" attempt. If you roll over the link given, it has some of the ebay-like domain address parts in it (eg ebay.fr) but then ends up with .pl - ie a server in Poland entirely unconnected with ebay.Ignore it and delete it!RegardsPickles Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pommier Posted December 5, 2007 Share Posted December 5, 2007 I had the identical email today (twice!), which I immediately deleted. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Suandpete Posted December 5, 2007 Share Posted December 5, 2007 Likewise - twice and both deleted! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
suein56 Posted December 5, 2007 Share Posted December 5, 2007 [quote user="David"]I have just received the following e-mail from ebay which appears to be genuine.[/quote]Ebay stresses that any communication they send you will always contain your name ie Dear David Smith and that you should regard any other communication purporting to be from them but not bearing your name as spam/fraud/whatever.Sue Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Posted December 5, 2007 Author Share Posted December 5, 2007 Many thanks for all your replies.I have deleted the e-mail without replying.Is there anything that I should be looking out for, or any danger to be alert for in view of Gluesticks comment "Subsequent analysis shows which emails were rejected by the Postmaster and which were logical and current"?Thanks again,Davidp.s. I really am grateful for all the help that I receive on this site. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ron Avery Posted December 6, 2007 Share Posted December 6, 2007 David Read what Sue has written above. No genuine bank or company sends E mails to you asking for your bank details to be "re - entered", and as Sue says EBay and paypal always send messages addressed to you and your log in name. If you have any suspicions about an Ebay message go into your EBay account and check if the message is in " your messages". If you don't have an account with ebay, paypal, Egg etc you can be 100% sure its a scam. But NEVER respond, it just confirms to the scammers that your E mail address is live. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cooperlola Posted December 6, 2007 Share Posted December 6, 2007 I always reckon a good rule is "if you think it might be fraud - it probably is."I also think it is worth sending a copy of these e-mails to e-bay themselves as they have a very sophisticated system for dealing with these kinds of people and, like the banks who suffer similarly, are always pleased to have any evidence which helps them to get to these people and do something about them. We have reported several suspicious sellers to them (slightly different, I realise) who have been dealt with very swiftly. But, as everybody has advised above and as you have done, get these e-mails off your own computer asap (and add the senders to your blocked list.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gluestick Posted December 6, 2007 Share Posted December 6, 2007 [quote user="David"]Is there anything that I should be looking out for, or any danger to be alert for in view of Gluesticks comment "Subsequent analysis shows which emails were rejected by the Postmaster and which were logical and current"?Thanks again,Davidp.s. I really am grateful for all the help that I receive on this site.[/quote]Unfortunately, David, once a cogent email address is caught by cybercriminals, it is passed on to others. One can buy, illegally, lists of known viable addresses.Spammers use an identical technique to try and sell all the sorts of junk we all know about! They work on the Mud Up Against the Wall" concept: if they send five million from a well hidden offshore proxy mail server, then some idtios will respond!The only - painful! - defence to both cybercriminals and spammers is to change your email address and password on a regular basis, if you use the mail service facilitated by your ISP.That said, as CooperLola states, (Morning, JE!), report all spam: personally, I run a number of email services, including a Hotmail account (MS) and a Geemail account (Google) and I only use these webmail addresses if I am completing any online form (e.g. to join a forum).MS's Hotmail now runs a pretty powerful Spam Filter which seems to work well and traps spam effectively.The point is that once a spammer's IP Address (their digital ID on the Web) is known, ALL future mail attempts are "Bounced" i.e., rejected, by your service's mail gateway server, thus they have no idea of what is logical (i.e. gets through to a viable mail server) and what doesn't, which defeats their software approach and endeavours. Wherupon they simply move to another offshore proxy server and different IP Address!And so the game goes on..............................Thus the golden rule is that if you think your personal ID and email address have been compromised: change it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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