Weird email from eBay

[dolphin]

Received this in my email the other day:
[attachment=1894:eBayemail.jpg]


I haven't been on eBay for quite sometime, let alone bid on anything. So I signed onto my eBay account and ended up doing a "chat" with an eBay rep. I sent her a copy of the email that I had received. She thanked me and said she would check it out. She then asked me if I had received the same email in my eBay inbox. I checked and hadn't and told her so. She did some more checking and told me that the item referred to in the email did not exist. She also told me that if eBay had sent the email it would also be in my eBay inbox. She suggested that I send the email to spoof@eBay.com, which I did.

Notice the item I circled in RED on the right hand side of the email. I didn't notice the date until after I had chatted with the eBay rep.

Anyone else ever received anything like this???

[jwboyd]

Happens to me occasionally.

I never reply; I just forward it to spoof@ebay.com

Invariably I get a reply from them that it is indeed fraudulent.

[tacit]

Yep, this is a normal and common fraud attempt. I average between 3 and 15 of these emails per day, and I do not use eBay or have an eBay account.

It did not come from eBay. many people do not know this, but the From: address can be set to anything that you want. All you need to do is change the preferences in your mail program. You can send email with absolutely any From: address at all; you can set it to security@ebay.com or registration@bankofamerica.com or god@heaven.up.in.the.clouds or absolutely anything you like.

The practical take-away lesson from this is: Never, ever, ever, EVER trust the From: address on ANY email. Not even emails from companies you do business with. Not even email addresses from your mom.

[kbeartx]

QUOTE(jwboyd @ Jun 18 2010, 10:31 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Happens to me occasionally.  I never reply; I just forward it to spoof@ebay.com

Invariably I get a reply from them that it is indeed fraudulent.

Ditto

Kb

[Xairbusdriver]

Sounds like somebody needs some spam filtering software...I seldom get more than three a week! And I only know that because a number shows up beside the Spam mailbox. It may also help that I recently deleted the cable ISP account in Mail! Maybe I should go to my account there and put a forwarding address there in case they actually send something worth reading. Nah, I don't see any indication that they would start doing something like that...

Now, useless, time-consuming and witless messages from 'forward-everything' 'friends' who think Powerpoint is the neatest thing since sliced bread, is a completely different matter!

[tacit]

One of the things I do with these fake emails is I use SpamCop.net to track down the ISP hosting the Web site that contains the phony eBay login pages. Then I look at the Web site; almost always, it is a site that has been hacked, whose owner does not know that fake eBay pages are on it. I then send an email to the ISP, with the subject "You are hosting a phish," detailing the security weaknesses in the site and that the site has been hacked.

You can tell a lot about the quality of the ISP by how fast they respond. A good ISP will shut down the fake eBay page in 15-20 minutes after I send the email. A poor ISP will leave it online for days or weeks.

I typically spend about 30-45 minutes a day doing this. Just one of the ways I try to make the world a better place.

[Xairbusdriver]

QUOTE

one of the ways I try to make the world a better place.

Thanks! Of course, that's probably all you will get for your troubles...and not many of those, even...