PSA: High level ebay fraud

A mate has just been done to the tune of many thousands by an ebay fraud perpetuated by having a fake ebay site.

They posted a high value item on real ebay, at a bargain price, with only 1 foto and an email address saying email for more details, via email they sent a link to a private auction, with fake ebay chat, ebay contract with a bond of up to 10k, and he foolishly paid a v large sum into the sellers account.

It is hopeful the money has been saved as he realised v quickly and his bank have apparently persuaded the recpient bank (barclays) to freeze the account.

It has taken him 36 hrs to get any interest from the police but he is now making headway..

My mate is a pretty switched on bloke and he is devastated at how easily he was sucked in. He admitted that it was his own greed at how cheap it was, so lets not get into any criticism, this is a warning to the unwary not a hunt for sympathy or understanding. Be careful out there.

an email address

Well that was against ebay rules for starters

My mate is a pretty switched on bloke

I’m sorry, but your story seems to suggest otherwise.

Too good to be true? Check.
Dodgy dealing? Check.
Paying a large sum of money? Check.

Greedy fella? That would appear to be another check.

It’s easy to sit and criticise with the benefit of hindsight, but come on…

Quite common – there’s was a splitty on there a whole back, very similar story, someone got sucked in and then posted on vw forum warning people not to add to the list of mugs

I’ll be honest having seen the screenshots I was blown away at the accuracy of it all.

via email they sent a link to a private auction

The real question is what did that link look like? Did it make it appear as if they were still on ebay? if so then it must have been a clever link

If it looked like the auction was elsewhere then why did it look like an ebay contract and chat?

Just interested in what they did to make it so convincing (although most people are willing to make lots of allowances for a bargain)

having seen the screenshots I was blown away at the accuracy of it all

Ok, sounds like they were impersonating the ebay site. So what did the email link look like?

Thats the point as it looked exactly like ebay, I was convinced, apart from the URL, which whilst long and convoluted also had a tiny giveaway in it. But then I only looked in hindsight as I might not have checked as everything looked exactly like ebay. V clever indeed.

Given the sequence of events I think I may have fallen for it, or at least I can see how easy it would be to fall for it. Hence the PSA.

apart from the URL, which whilst long and convoluted also had a tiny giveaway in it

Can you show us what it was? Always interesting to see how it was done

Post reported.

I got a ban for calling someone a naughty name, I would expect you to.

I’m allowed to have a different opinion without being abused for it.

I can’t as its in the hands of the law now but it was essentially like this

www.ebay.dodgysite.com/forum/topic/psa-high-level-ebay-fraud#post-3811402

If it was real it would have been http://www.dodgysite.ebay.com/forum/topic/psa-high-level-ebay-fraud#post-3811402

The word “dodgysite” was actually two letters long.

Actually Crikey… i would say that was thoroughly deserved.

This:

in future perhaps people will be less happy to warn others of their mistakes because assholes like you come along and wade in

If it was 2 letters that is quite easy to miss really even though it is obvious in hindsight 🙁

crikey – he’s obviously annoyed for his mate: cut him some slack! And this is a good point (the name calling is a bit poor tbh):

in future perhaps people will be less happy to warn others of their mistakes because assholes like you come along and wade in.

Lots of folks get suckered and its not always greed. This one would have properly got me hook line and sinker:

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/exciting-new-twist-on-phonebank-scam-telecoms-help-please

If everyone gets a hard time for being a bit hazy now and again then we wouldnt share our mistakes.

a criticism of his view is reasonable the language used to criticise is not IMHO
I make no view of who I support here but crikey did not use that type of language to describe the OP’s friend.

It’s easy to sit and criticise with the benefit of hindsight, but come on

this seems more pleasant than the reply which i wont repeat.

TBH I only know that the top level domain is the last bit to come before the .com or .co.uk as I own a few websites myself and learnt this through experience. I don’t think everyone would know that.

My mate is a pretty switched on bloke and he is devastated at how easily he was sucked in. He admitted that it was his own greed at how cheap it was, so lets not get into any criticism, this is a warning to the unwary not a hunt for sympathy or understanding. Be careful out there.

I’m annoyed as I stated this quite clearly in the first post. by post 3 captain clever clogs has popped up and implied that my mate is defcient in some way.

I’ve no problem with people disagreeing with me, but Prick? asshole?

You want a forum with that level of debate?

If it had been Joe Bloggs getting ripped off for £20 on e-bay because of greed, my opinion would be exactly the same.

Scams work because people are greedy, not because they are so cleverly done.

@toys19 thanks for the headsup, I know of someone stung in a similar manner. Perhaps calling crikey an asshole and a prick was a bit OTT but even so I think some people on this site need to get a thicker skin, there have been a few threads recently where people have grassed to the mods and asked for threads to be closed because they can’t take a bit of a ribbing. We’re all adults aren’t we? Let’s at least try to get along.

Ebay has some brilliant examples of fake addresses. They would catch most folks who weren’t reasonably aware
From ebay:
Examples of fake addresses:
xttp://signin.ebay.com@10.19.32.4/ (this address has something between the “.com” and the forward slash)

xttp://page.@ebay.com (this address has an at sign (@) between the period and “ebay”)

xttp://signin-ebay.com/ (this address contains a dash (-) instead of a period (.) between “signin” and “ebay”)

Ebay….

A marketplace for two parties, both trying to get something for nothing 😀

The 2nd two are obvious, but the first one had me looking twice..

i avoid e bay like the plague, not fair on the genuine sellers, but that website is a pawnshops pornhub

crikey naff off. Prick. I said he agreed it was his fault, in future perhaps people will be less happy to warn others of their mistakes because assholes like you come along and wade in.

toys – you fallen out of your pram or something?

crikey – Member
I’ve no problem with people disagreeing with me, but Prick? asshole?

I think coming on and being rude about another member’s friend when they are, quite kindly, pointing out to other members that this is going on isn’t really on. Think how you would react if someone spoke as you did about one of your good, real-life, friends.

The way you acted was really rather unpleasant, and please don’t try and defend yourself any further.

and please don’t try and defend yourself any further :roll:.

That word I used when I got banned? That’s probably you…

The 2nd two are obvious, but the first one had me looking twice..

You are right but they aren’t that obvious to many people :(.

The telecoms scams linked to earlier are scary – they could easily have got away with that one.

Heelllloooo !.

This is a PSA thread.

Keep your thoughts to yourself.

Toys is giving people a Heads-up

So, please, its a Sunday.

Go drink some wine, make love to your wife.

But don’t ass about on here, please.
🙄

crikey you weasel please go away, you complain about me being rude and now you are being rude about other members, whilst pathetically trying to stay within the rules. Pot, kettle black.

🙄

Wow, you are a nasty piece of work.

Leffeboy, yes sorry, I meant obvious to me, but yeah, many wouldnt see it.

Blimey, looks like I’ll be sending out a few new Big Hitter certificates tonight!

Wow, you are a nasty piece of work.

Which one ? The one saying their opinion or the one being insulted for saying their opinion [ and now insulting back]?

Of to earn his on Bono thread 😉