Watch Out for eBay E-mail Scams

Several months ago, I received an e-mail that appeared to be from eBay. The e-mail said that I had bid on an item (which I had no knowledge of) and asked me to log into my account. Normally, I’m cautious about entering info over e-mail, but initially, this e-mail appeared legitimate. It had an eBay logo and the link took me to what appeared to be an eBay page. However, as soon as I entered my e-mail address and password, I got a very suspicious feeling.

I decided to contact eBay and find out if they had sent me anything. I was informed that no, they had not sent anything to me via e-mail and that normally eBay keeps a track record for all correspondence that they send you. When you log into your eBay account, you can check your messages and it will show a record of any e-mails they have sent out to you. I was given information about eBay’s fraud department where they track suspicious e-mails and was instructed to forward the e-mail to spoof@ebay.com.

I was very lucky. Because I had overheard a conversation the same day as I got the e-mail about scams like this, I was able to contact eBay and change my password and change my credit card on file so that no one could use my information. However, I could have saved myself a good hour or so of trouble if I had been more cautious and aware.

Looking back, I noticed a few odd signs: my e-mail had a gray button which would connect me to the site (in reality it probably sent me to a mirror site which would record my information then forward me through to eBay). The email also did not have @eBay.com as its source. Most e-mails I get will say billing@ebay.com or customerservice@ebay.com or something similar. While the e-mail claimed that I had bid on an item and not confirmed payment, I never received an e-mail confirming I had "won" the auction item. Normally, I'd get several e-mails from eBay if I had sold or bid on an item before the transaction was done.