eBay and PayPal

[Lee]

I am postiing this in the open area 1/87th area so all including non-members can read it.

---------------------------------------------------- W A R N I N G --------------------------------------------------------

There are phony emails being sent requesting personal information about your eBay or PayPal account. Do NOT respond to these emails. Ebay will address you by name in any email they send to you. The same with PayPal. These phony emails will say that there is a problem with your account and they want you to verify the information they have. Do NOT give anyone your passwords or account information.

Forward any questional emails from "eBay" or "PayPal" to [e-mail]

[stanhas87]

Dear Sirs:

I been dealing with eBay/PayPal for a couple years now and know the drill: eBay/PayPal will never ask for your personal information and if it happens that one receive one the letters mentioned above, report these event to them immediatelly. Fact is, up to now,never received one of these letters; if I do, I will save it and send it to eBay immediately.

[Sylvain]

I should have write about it long ago. I receive one of these false email (I've heard that the fact to send such email was called "fishing") almost every two weeks. Never answer to these emails, and never use them to open a suppose-to-be eBay or Paypal page website, asking confidential informations about your account. If you have any doubt, do as Lee says and forward them to [e-mail], asking them if they are real emails or not. eBay and Paypal always answer very quickly.

[Albert]

You may wonder what happens if you follow one of those links. A friend of mine who has opened his account one month ago, cliked one of the links in those false e-mails. Days later his Ebay account was blocked. Luckily he hadn´t any Credit card or bank account given.

I have sent a lot of those mails to [e-mail]
I understand that the fake Paypal mails have to be followed to this e-mail too.

[BillC]

In the U.S., it's called "Phishing" and it's not just eBay or PayPal, it's a number of the major banks and financial institutions.

I get them all the time in my commercial e-mail account. As a matter of fact, I have "[e-mail]" and "[e-mail]" in my address book and foward all eBay and Paypal phishers.

Never forget: the people who legitimately need your user ID or password (i.e., you and the company or institution with whom you deal) already have this information and do not need to ask for it.

Bill C.

[stanhas87]

Dear Sirs:

I posted this info at the member area and I am also putting it here: received an 'my account is cancelled' letter. I went further,and they wanted info such as credit card accounts,pay pal pin and so on. It is a protected area,they claim,but one does not see the little yellow locker at the end of the page. Hence,I went to eBay site,spoke live with one of the representants and he gave me a series of links besides the spoff@eBay. I was able to give the URL and main contents of the letter that I received at this section and sent this info to eBay coordinators. I received then an almost immediate response stating that my account is quite active and was thanked by sending the letter that I received.

The frightning thing about it is the fact that letter format is very much as from the eBay site but as I learned parts of the URL were not correct and/or as it would be if eBay would really had sent it to me. Hence I can see some people giving away this nfo because they do not know better. I also have copies of the letter and from eBay answer and if anyone is interested I can pass it away so it is a warning to anyone concerned.

[Sylvain]

STANHAS87 said:

The frightning thing about it is the fact that letter format is very much as from the eBay site

Yes, they are. They are very well done. But if you ever receive an email of the kind which seems to be sent by eBay or Paypal, do not go further. Open it, read what's in it, but do not click on the links indicate. If you have any doubt, forward the email to [e-mail] or [e-mail] (Bill is right, it's a good idea to have both in your address book). They will answer you very soon, to tell you if it's a true email or not.

Bill,

So it's "Phishing" and not "Fishing"? I didn't know. I only have heard the word, never read it. So I've spelt it wrong.

[cfesmire]

Any of us that ebay as a seller or a buyer know what to expect in our emails from ebay. (i.e. "end of auction", "outbid notice", etc.) Everything, that is virtually anything, that does not confirm bids, outbids or sales gets forwarded to the spoof address. I have had them returned and then will open them but I figure it is better to opt on the side of caution.

[Lee]

Sylvain said:

Bill,

So it's "Phishing" and not "Fishing"? I didn't know. I only have heard the word, never read it. So I've spelt it wrong.

Phishing is a takeoff from fishing. People casting with baited computer hook hoping to catch a fish or two. One of the uses of fish in the English language is to mean some sucker who took the bate. ;D