dodger Posted December 14, 2004 Share Posted December 14, 2004 Many scams regarding eBay 2nd chance offers. If you can, check the address where the email is coming from. They can make legit looking offers, but if you the capability, you can tell what address the 2nd chance offer is coming from. eBay is not supposed to list full addresses - only to the Seller. I have mentioned this before - HOW are the scammers getting your full address. If you have a question about the person, do a google search to find an engine that will give reverse lookup for names, addresses and see if you can get a phone number. Report all scams to eBay and to your local authorities. If the count is high enough regarding the same address, one of the two will have to do something about it. You can always contact eBay to find out if the 2nd chance is legitimate. dodger Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Good2BHome Posted December 14, 2004 Share Posted December 14, 2004 Dodger said: "eBay is not supposed to list full addresses - only to the Seller. I have mentioned this before - HOW are the scammers getting your full address." I've received several of these 2nd chance scam offers over the last several years! ALL looked BOGUS!! BUT, I ask the same question: "HOW ARE THE eBay SCAMMERS GETTING MY EMAIL ADDRESS" ???? Mike Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom Mobley Posted December 14, 2004 Share Posted December 14, 2004 If your member name is visible as a bidder on an auction people can click on it to see your feedback. on that page is a button that can be clicked to email you through the ebay system. The people don't actually see your address unless you reply to them. This is not new, but use of it by creative scammers is a recent development. As I understand it, a real second chance offer comes with a new ebay auction number attached, you could go to ebay independently and look up the auction number, see if it's legit. As always, let the buyer beware, do your due diligence, all that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hwatkins Posted December 14, 2004 Share Posted December 14, 2004 Just to agree with Tom and add a couple of sense (spelling intentional) worth: In the other thread here regarding second chance the second chance offer was displayed. On this offer you clearly see the name of the sender and it is clearly labeled as an Ebay indirect Email (as Tom said, unless you respond directly your addy is not visible). The sender does not match names in any way to the original seller. The Ebay disclaimer is part of the message that describes that your response will deliver your addy. So - in this case you can pretty well see the scam turn. In that same thread another smart thing happened - directly contact the seller from the original page and ask directly. I have had a couple of very nice second chance purchases, but I have had a couple of the scam attempts. I recommend one always reports them to EBay - darned if I know whether they do anything with it, but they sure can't help stop this stuff without our help in identification of the guilty parties. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Parrot Posted December 14, 2004 Share Posted December 14, 2004 This is a two-year old article, but it wouldn't surprise me if things are still the same. http://msnbc.msn.com/id/3078736/ Also, Mark the other day mentioned the use of escrow services. Well, guess what? There are fake escrow services too! http://www.auctionbytes.com/cab/abn/y02/m10/i25/s01 Here is an excerpt: How do people fall for escrow fraud? Here's a real-life example. A con man used a stolen credit card to register a Web site, using a domain with the word "escrow" in it. He copied the look of a legitimate escrow site to make the site appear authentic. The fraudster contacted a doctor in Florida who was selling his Porsche on a fixed-price site called AutoTrader.com. Posing as an interested buyer, the fraudster asked the doctor to send additional photos of the car via FedEx to an address in San Francisco. He then used those photos and specific information about the doctor's car to post an auction on eBay Motors. An eBay Motors user named Steve bid $43,000 for the Porsche after checking the VIN number, a number unique to every car. Everything checked out ? the VIN number belonged to a doctor in Florida. The auction ended without a sale, because the reserve price was not met. The fraudulent seller, posing as the Florida doctor, contacted Steve, telling him he was the next highest bidder. Steve agreed to purchase the Porsche for $44,000, believing he was going through eBay using their "Second Chance Offer" feature, which allows sellers to sell an item to the next highest bidder. Steve communicated with the fraudulent seller via email, who told Steve to wire the money into an escrow account, and Steve made arrangements to pick up the car in Las Vegas. After many delays on the part of the seller, Steve called the doctor in Florida, and was shocked to learn the doctor did not post the car on eBay Motors. The doctor, an unwilling and unknowing participant in the scam, had already traded in his Porsche for a Lexus. The con man had Steve's $44,000, and Steve was left without a car and $44,000 poorer. The pattern on the cases that AuctionBytes.com examined is the same. We decided to ask one Internet Service Provider why they hadn't shut down a Web site set up with stolen credit cards and posing as an escrow service. In a written statement, Dreamhost, the hosting service where the Escrowoncall.net domain resides, told AuctionBytes that they provide "hosting for more than 40,000 domains, making it impossible to constantly monitor customers? web sites or activities." And what does eBay have to say? eBay spokesperson Kevin Pursglove said eBay is aware of fraudulent escrow sites, but said there have been "virtually no fraud cases reported" by eBay members about such escrow sites. Because eBay does not consider it a significant problem, there are no warnings on the site, he said. ***** I think the guy who is out $44,000 should be asked if he considers it a "significant problem." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dodger Posted December 14, 2004 Author Share Posted December 14, 2004 Well this makes it more interesting. The Attorney General - Cobumer Frauds in eBay's HQ State should be copied in on each and every Fraud report. And since they have not had Fraud reports if Paul is willing to share COPIES to known Forum Members that have been scammed, a Civil lawsuit would be fitting. Also if you do send eBay a Fraud/Scam report, make sure that you also send a copy to your sent items file. If using their own reporting system, print each page. Also send copies to your Law Enforcement Agency and The FBI Internet Frauds. Blind copy your Local, but let eBay see the FBI being copied in. dodger Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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