Opinion on Whether Im about to be taken . . .

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Posted By: GDP

In response to your inquiry about the fake emails I have been receiving, I have had at least ten instances in the last 30 days of one of the following:

FAKE SECOND OFFERS: "Authentic" looking emails ostensibly from eBay's "second offer" program, where the seller can offer you (as underbidder) a chance to buy through eBay if the winning buyer does not perform or if there is a duplicate item for sale. The scary part about this is that the senders have PERFECTLY cloned the authentic eBay message, but if you click through to the eBay site you will be taken instead to a fake eBay site to consummate the purchase. Sometimes it is easy to tell that it is a fake, but many times it is not. SOLUTION: I never accept a "second offer" until I go back to the original listing and email the Seller (through eBay's "Contact Seller" feature on the original listing) in order to have him confirm that he has sent the offer, etc. (P.S., I am purposely ignoring the greater question of whether to trust "second offers" generally, since often they reflect improper shill bidding on the underlying auction - but if the price is right I have been known to pay nonetheless.)

FAKE PAYMENT INSTRUCTIONS: I have also received equally-authentic-looking "eBay confirmation" notices after winning an auction, specifying either money order or PayPal payments to be made to an addressee which (after checking against the authentic eBay checkout site) turn out to be different from the information listed on eBay. SOLUTION: I do not reply on any eBay email confirmations without first going through eBay's own checkout site to confirm addresses, emails, etc. In a few instances the Seller legitimately wanted me to use a different address or checkout system - but in each instance I required that they send me an email through eBay confirming all details and including my own message for verification.

BTW, watch the email return addresses very carefully. I have had a few instances where I received emails from Sellers where - upon close inspection - I would find a single letter different from the authentic seller (the number "1" instead of the letter "l" was the most common. If you were to cut-and-paste, or click-through, you would be most unhappy with the result.

It really is quite frustrating. And quite a change from the era some of us remember (1997-98) when the internet was full of enthusiast-crazies instead of crooks.

Hope this helps. I continue to compile my lists of do's and don't's on eBay, but it gets quite depressing after awhile.

Gil Porter