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Don’t Hook those eBay Phish!
Phishing is an illegal activity that pulls a person from a legitimate eBay site to one that is involved in scamming people for money. Phishing is also often referred to as spoofing, or sending spoof e-mails.
This happens quite often and honest buyers and sellers need to be aware of this practice-and to know how to avoid being hooked by it, or hooking someone else in this way. There are ways to be sure not to be tricked by one of these evil schemes.
eBay phishers will present themselves as an authentic-looking eBay site, and will even send e-mails to members that look as though they are legitimate. However, many of these supposedly legitimate-looking e-mails are really fake.
There are warning signs you need to be aware of to be able to spot e-mails that are being sent to you as ones that are fake or spoofs. For example, phishers will often send generic notices with a greeting such as “Attention eBay Member” or similar phrase.
Usually the spoof e-mails mentioned in the previous paragraph will contain threats of eBay account suspension, invitations to become a Power Seller, and so forth. These actions in themselves could happen, but spoofers send these during times when these events or situations could not possibly take place. Furthermore, spoofing (phishing) emails also usually require a person to take immediate action, and to offer personal information such as a social security number, eBay password, and so on.
A similar phishing experience that has affected some eBay members in the past that you need to be aware about is that regarding PayPal. Numerous attempts have been made by people sending out fake e-mails that look authentic and even have PayPal addresses in the “From” line. The object usually is to get you to surrender to them your PayPal password so they can use it to steal the funds out of your PayPal account.
You know a little about what a fake e-mail would contain if it were sent to you by a phisher. However, you may also want to know what an eBay e-mail or a PayPal e-mail will or will not contain. For example, authentic e-mails from eBay or PayPal usually do not have any files attached to them, nor do they ask for passwords or other personal information (i.e. credit card numbers or SSN).
In order to further protect yourself, you may want to copy and paste any links that you get in an e-mail into your web browser. This will help ensure that you are going to the right site page. However, you also may need to take other action to be able to recognize a true eBay site from a false one.
One way to know if you are visiting a genuine eBay site is to take a look at the URL of the page that a link leads you to after you click it or paste it into your Web browser. If you notice that the link contains no other characters before the first forward slash of the eBay URL it is most likely genuine. It will also not contain any additional characters after the forward slash of a particular page, other than that which usually would name a specific eBay page.
If you have any doubt at all regarding a particular eBay e-mail and whether or not it is really eBay you can also report it and check out the situation. For example, if you notice that you have receive an e-mail saying that your eBay account is in danger of suspension you may consider not responding to that e-mail, and typing in the URL of the eBay home page and then signing in to your account. Usually you will have received a notice in your eBay e-mail message system.
If you see that your account appears to be okay, you should be able to still buy, sell, and make bids. If you can do one or more of these things then you know that your eBay account has not been suspended. Therefore, be careful, and report any suspicious e-mails to the proper authorities, such as to eBay or PayPal sites. Authorities from either one of these sites will look further into the situation.
Don Guindon |
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Name: Don Guindon
Home: Malakwa, British Columbia, Canada
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