....another ebay scam perhaps?

[Will Hay]

a friend of mine bid on a bike (second hand) on ebay.co.uk
£1200 ($1700.00).
he lost it, but two weeks after got an email from ebay (email address seccoffer@yahoo.com) saying the original winning bid had failed and it was still available.
When my pal contacted the guy and recieved a reply asking about what the price would be, the response was...
1) from an oddly named mailbox account (far east perhaps?)
2) written in very bad English (despite the original auction bieng very well written).
Also, the original seller and bidder had given each other prositive feedback.
My pal (who is quite niave when it comes to ebay), on my suggestion, has sent the email to spoof@ebay.co.uk in case its a scam (it doesn't hurt to check, right?) but has anyone else heard of this and why would ebay be using a yahoo mail account?
This is the biggest flaw as far as I'm concerned, but I may be wrong of course.
Just all looks bad, hen you consider all the signs.
Will

[luvvbuzz]

sounds like you have good reason to be concerned will, its well dodgy buying anything outside the ebay site by a seller in any case and all things considered in this case it seems well dodgy. i hope you will let us know the outcome of the email to ebay as to whether it is a spoof scam thing.

[Will Hay]

This is clearly a scam.
What I didn't say in my first post is that Stuart (my pal) emailed this guy back asking his preferred payment method (just to see if he would only accept paypal - don't forget the original seller is in the UK and would accept a cheque).
This is the response we've just had....

Subject: RE: eBay Second Chance Offer from Seller
Date: Mon, 16 Feb 2004 05:05:12 -0800

look i moved in Netherlands with my work and my familly 1 weaks ago
i will shipp from here

let me know if you agree and we can start this deal fast as you can.....

This guys emails are headed 'ion miu'...
doesn't sound like an English name to me, at least not when you consider the original auction for this bike was created by a 'R. Kennison'.

This completely stinks to me and as I say has been reported to ebay.
I'll post more as and when I find it, just in case it happens to anyone else.
This bike was expensive (£1200 $2200) so I guess these people are targetting the higher value stuff.


This was the intial email (following the one that looked to me like it came from ebay)

Subject: RE: eBay Second Chance Offer from Seller
Date: Fri, 13 Feb 2004 05:16:15 -0800

the item is available
so please tell me your best price you can offer me for this item and

we >have a deall....thanks fore your time

Just doesn't seem right to me.
Will

[SLICK RICK]

Will,

Yeah, that just doesn't seem right. Something is definitely wrong there.

SLICK RICK

[Will Hay]

What I don't understand is how this guy managed to mail my pal directly, using the ebay 'contact a member' function but still send it with html.
Would he just have a template with code set up which, once received, would look like a real ebay email?
Will

[Will Hay]

Something I didn't ralise before...
....see the (user) name at the botoom of this message?

You expressed interest in an item titled scott g-zero strike pro mountain bike (Item # 3657233045) by bidding, however the auction has ended with another member as the high bidder.

In compliance with eBay policy, the seller is making you this Second Chance Offer.

The seller has issued this Second Chance Offer because the winning bidder was unable to complete the transaction.

If you accept this offer, you will be able to exchange Feedback with the seller and will be eligible for eBay services associated with a transaction, such as fraud protection.

To purchase this item, reply this mail or contact the seller at
xxxxxxxxxxxxx


To learn more about Second Chance Offer go to:http://pages.ebay.com/help/sell/personal_offer.html

Thank you,
rickk2chance

rickk2chance wasn't the original seller, has no connection with the auction as either buyer or seller and has *just* just been banned from ebay.
He also only registered with ebay eight days after the bike auction finished.
I remember someone saying they could send 200 emails to an address at once, to effectively flood that inbox.
I someone would care to share that information my PM inbox is always open
I despise people like this.

[Devanshu]

I consider my bid at least a hundred times when I'm dealing with ebay. You're right to be concerned will and your pal should thank you. I bid on a family guy dvd set as a gift for one of my friends, and this dude emailed me(on my yahoo account) saying "I have the same set and I'll sell it to you cheaper than the price". I looked up his username on ebay and guess what...33% positive feedback rating. I'm really skeptical when I buy something off ebay.

[Will Hay]

Incredibly, when me and Stuart were looking at this guys feedback rating we clicked on his details and when clicked 'back' hit reload.
He had been banned in the time we were looking.
My only concern is anyone else he mailed on the failed bidder list.
Stuart has emailed the original seller, something along the lines of...

thanks for your email. how much to buy the bike and how much to ship from the Netherlands?

Thsi guy said he had just moved there in the last week.
When the original seller realises there's something a miss Suart is going to ask him to mail every failed bidder.
In fact, I think I'll log in and do it via my account.
Will

[pacmania_2001]

Will, do a google search for the program called 'Hidden Sender', that is the program you are after for email flooding.

[Will Hay]

Will, do a google search for the program called 'Hidden Sender', that is the program you are after for email flooding.

Thanks buddy
Will

[alenhard]

I abandoned EBay a long time ago. I've found Amazon to be 100x safer and easier to use.

So what if I'm the winning bidder and save $10. I'd rather shell out full price and be guaranteed to receive it. Amazon covers its buyers very well. Not that there isn't any fraud there, but I sure feel better about it.

[Devanshu]

I abandoned EBay a long time ago. I've found Amazon to be 100x safer and easier to use.

So what if I'm the winning bidder and save $10. I'd rather shell out full price and be guaranteed to receive it. Amazon covers its buyers very well. Not that there isn't any fraud there, but I sure feel better about it.

True. When I need to buy something, I usually look at ebay first and then compare the prices from amazon and ebay and see how much I can save. If the difference is a lot, I'll use ebay and try to win the auction but if it's 10 bucks or so, I'll just use amazon.

[sacajaweeda]

Is there really any point to flooding somebody's mailbox?

I mean besides just acting like some kind of juvenile *******.

I'm sure neither ISP would appreciate it.

Let eBay's toothless law dogs handle the matter.

MY $.02 (sometimes not worth even a penny)

[indolikaa]

I get this shit all the time.

I once lost an auction on an EchoStar satellite dish with a Quad LNB. I've been receiving (STILL) e-mails from ******** offering to sell me 'virgin' H- and Hu- Cards for my satellite receivers. These would be, of course, the cards that you can (or used to, anyway) reprogram to steal DTV signals, and they are for DirecTV not Dish Network.

Or, I get a 'Second Chance' e-mail, sometimes on items I actually won. They get my 'Standard BrickTop Reply' but it never changes anything.

They are ALWAYS from a yahoo or hotmail account.

[shoozleboy]

My boss ran into this same scam last fall on ebay... seller said it was in the netherlands and wanted a deposit sent via Western Union....

it was a Harley Davidson and the selling price was about half what it would sell for in the states from a legitimate HD dealer... (checked with the dealer down the street from me to verify).

Anyhow, he declined the guys offer and found out later that the guy had hijacked about 100 ebay ids and was selling a Harley with each ID using the same story.... bike is in the netherlands and you have to use Western Union to pay a deposit ($3000 US dollars for the one he was looking at)

ebay actually contacted my boss and talked with him about it... first time I've ever heard of that happening....

[Hatz]

Is there really any point to flooding somebody's mailbox?

I mean besides just acting like some kind of juvenile *******.

Worth it......YES. Any pain you can cause those ******** is worth it. I almost got scammed on ebay earlier this year.........remember the whole Escrow fiasco.....but luckily I was hesitant on the whole thing and alot of great people on this board helped me out with it...THANKS AGAIN EVERYONE.

Hell, we should all send him emails....hahahaha.

Way to be worried Will, you might have saved your friend alot of money.

Hatz

[budz]

Just wanna say that 2 friends of mine got their ebay accts. and paypal accts. hacked by someone. Over $2000 was taken out of one acct. My friend blamed herself for replying to some email she thought was from ebay. She called her credit card company for some other reason & the customer service person told her the current balance on her acct. which freaked her out because she didn't make purchases over $2000.00. The hacker who did this also got to her checking acct. Luckily she was not liable for any of the charges. A big headache to have to close out all the bank accts. and reopen new ones.

This is the reason I refuse to join paypal. I have heard too many horror stories about money being taken out without authorization and accts. being hacked into.

Great work Will in helping out your friend. I've tried to warn some of my friends about the dangers of paypal. I haven't had a problem purchasing stuff from ebay. (knocks on wood) I pay via money order since they're free from my bank.

[Will Hay]

I mailed everyone who bid and gave them a lengthy post as to who I was and why I did it, and some have replied with a simple 'thanks', so I feel good to be honest.
Someone may have fallen for it, the initial email looked totally real and had I not known what I do about ebay and had I wanted to spend so much on a bike I may have fallen for it.
Stuart (my pal) was in two minds about buying it.
Oh, and Ebay's toothless lay dogs?
Danm right!
If they'd given a shit about their members first thing they would have done would have been to email everyone who bid on the bike, and warn them.
But no, all they did was close this guys account?
What is the ******* point of that?
He only set up his ebay account the week before he tried this scam, and has either bought nor sold anything.
Flooding his email account would have made me felt a little better for a second or two, knowing I may have helped stopping this bastard scam someone is a better feeling.
Will Hay

[indolikaa]

Just wanna say that 2 friends of mine got their ebay accts. and paypal accts. hacked by someone. Over $2000 was taken out of one acct. My friend blamed herself for replying to some email she thought was from ebay. She called her credit card company for some other reason & the customer service person told her the current balance on her acct. which freaked her out because she didn't make purchases over $2000.00. The hacker who did this also got to her checking acct. Luckily she was not liable for any of the charges. A big headache to have to close out all the bank accts. and reopen new ones.

This is the reason I refuse to join paypal. I have heard too many horror stories about money being taken out without authorization and accts. being hacked into.

Let me tell y'all how I handle PayPal. It's about the safest thing I could come up with...

We opened a checking account specifically for eBay. The account is normally empty. When I need to PayPal something I transfer money from another account into the PayPal-attached account. Then I do the PayPal transaction. It's no-fee checking so the only hassle is to move the money into the account, but I can do that online.

Credit cards are much safer because we have $0 liability on them, but I still keep a low-limit/high-rate card on file for certain purchases.