SWG Tales

I received an email that looked very official and stuff saying my account had fraudulent bids made on it and in order to keep my account from being closed I needed to verify my account. When I clicked on the link provided it asked for me to provide my credit card. I thought that was kind of bogus, so I decided to check into it.

There wasn't anything amiss I could find in my EBay account itself, and after going through some stuff, changing my password, blah blah blah, I finally looked a little closer at the email itself (duh, Kelly). The email was from "support@bay.com." Asses.

So beware, any fellow EBay users. They almost got me, but oh no!! I was too quick.

Copy of the email below....
________________________
From : eBay administrator <support@bay.com>
Sent : Saturday, March 19, 2005 5:52 PM
To : Kelleh Kelleh Bo Belleh Banana Fannah Fo Felleh
Subject : eBay: NOTIFICATION!


Dear eBay consumer,

You have received this email because you or someone had used your account to make fake bids at eBay. For security purposes, we are required to open an investigation into this matter.To help speed up this process, please access the following form to complete the verification of your eBay account registration informations:


Click here to confirm your identity

Please Note:
If we do not receive the appropriate eBay account verification within 48 hours, then we will assume this eBay account is fraudulent and will be suspended.

The purpose of this verification is to ensure that your eBay account has not been fraudulently used and to combat the fraud from our community.
We appreciate your support and understanding, as we work together to keep eBay a safe place to trade.
Thank you for your patience in this matter.
Regards, Safeharbor Department (Trust and Safety Department)
eBay Inc.

Please do not reply to this e-mail as this is only a notification.

Copyright © 2005 eBay Inc. All Rights Reserved. Designated trademarks and brands are the property of their respective owners. eBay and the eBay logo are trademarks of eBay Inc. eBay is located at 2145 Hamilton Avenue, San Jose, CA 95125.

Yeah, there is a TON of that going around lately. Never respond to an email with any sort of sensitive info. Don't trust any of the links in a email either.

Its called "phishing" and people are doing it for every company imaginable.

Bottom line:

Never respond to emails asking for any identity confirmation ever. Legit companies have your info and will never lose it, and they will never ask for it again. Phishing scams also come over the phone now as well. My manager got her credit card stolen over the phone because she received a very official sounding call from her "credit card company" asking for information.

My take on it, if a business loses my info and needs it back - they probably don't need my business in the first place.

Jabe

The company I work for is an almost exclusive ebay business. We deal in high volume retail on a few online auction sites and marketplaces, but of course eBay is where we do most of our business.

We receive hundreds of those emails every week. Ebay will never ask you to enter sensitive information like that in an email. If it seems like it may be legit, please contact Ebay before responding to anything. Most of the time the pages you are directed to in the emails have already been taken down, but not all the time.

Also be on the lookout for similar emails that look like they are from Paypal. That is an even more sensitive subject. Don't need anyone to have access to your bank account info.

If anyone has anymore questions about this, I may be able to offer some assistance. I deal with eBay everyday, for better or worse.

Jabe Adaks wrote:Its called "phishing" and people are doing it for every company imaginable.

Bottom line:

Never respond to emails asking for any identity confirmation ever. Legit companies have your info and will never lose it, and they will never ask for it again. Phishing scams also come over the phone now as well. My manager got her credit card stolen over the phone because she received a very official sounding call from her "credit card company" asking for information.

My take on it, if a business loses my info and needs it back - they probably don't need my business in the first place.

Jabe

Oh you mean like Bank of America losing thousands of government employees private information while flying it through a cheap courier service.

I smell lawsuit on that one and.... I have already added my name to the list.

*Folds up card tables and metal chairs. Tosses milk crate file boxes into the Uhaul*

On to Atlanta folks! We're too hot in Florida again!