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It only takes one person to fall for it - even if they send a couple of grand as a deposit then the scammer will be doing well, if they are foolish enough to send full payment the scammer will laughing all the way to Western Union!
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On a similar note, if you ever get an email purporting to be from Paypal asking you to update your details then its a scam. Please report it by forwarding to spoof@paypal.com. You can see it isn't genuine as the link in the email, although it looks like a paypal website address, isn't. Hover the mouse pointer over the link and you'll see the real address.
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paypal spoff - had two this morning, have reported, initial feedback confirms the obvious, why is it so difficult to track the spoofer down and prosecute him/her??, or do they get prosecuted and the result is just not newsworthy.
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I had a request from E-Bay asking to confirm that i wanted to change my password.
I tried to tell that i had done no such thing and was led into a page where i was asked if i wanted compensation.
It was the only way ahead so i used the page to detail what had happened, after a while they sent me a reply saying i was not able to claim.
I replied saying i wanted no money, i just wanted to alert them to the fact someone was trying to change my password- result- no reply.
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Time for a vigilante squad, methinks.
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paypal spoff - had two this morning, have reported, initial feedback confirms the obvious, why is it so difficult to track the spoofer down and prosecute him/her??, or do they get prosecuted and the result is just not newsworthy.
As it is UK police are stretched, due to bureacracy, binge drinking (the public, not the police), people dialling 999 when they have stomach ache etc. And in addition this kind of crime is rather complex, and crosses borders. So you need highly computer literate and hence expensive staff, and cooperation between police in multiple countries.
The latest wheeze is to send a fake email that pretends to be a returned copy of an email that failed to reach the intended recipient. These get through the anti-spam filters.
The internet is a whole new route for criminals to make a killing.
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I heard recently of a house being raided in Bradford because the occupants were running a fraud operation on Ebay. So these things do get dealt with but I assume its a "drop in the ocean" situation?
Last week a bloke from the office downstairs said he bid £300 on a '60's Triumph motorbike, but then didnt bid again and it sold for £2000. He then got two emails from people saying the winning bidder had pulled out, would he like to buy the bike for his bid price? But both emails had an ebay i.d. different to the seller! He said they both had an ebay header on the page and one was well written, but the other was full of spelling mistakes and poor grammar.
He came to ask me if I thought it was dodgy! I think his judgement was clouded by the thought he could get his dream bike for £300, even though he acknowledged this was an unrealistic price. I advised him to forward the emails to spoof@ebay.co.uk.
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First question to Tack. Out of interest, if your son works as a police detective, is it allowed for family to speak to others about this (apart from immediate family). Of course, e-bay fraud isn't terrorism or anything, but it is still confidential isn't it?
But yes, the internet is an easy way to make money fraudelantly. Anyone who has logic can work out a crime. Just watch TV like those rip off builders, watchdog etc. It is suprisingly easy. Of course, thank god the majority of people work hard for their money, and are honest.
I think there is a basic rule for ebayers: use logic, don't be too trustworthy and be realistic. Any person wanting to meet in a car park in Peckham and 11pm could be dogdy for example. Not that Peckham is a bad area, just its where the Trotters lived!
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First question to Tack. Out of interest, if your son works as a police detective, is it allowed for family to speak to others about this (apart from immediate family). Of course, e-bay fraud isn't terrorism or anything, but it is still confidential isn't it?
It's no secret. eBay and the Met' have both announced their working partnerships (along with Western Union) as far back as 2005.
This type of information is publicly accessible if you know where to look. The Met' and eBay are keen for the public to know (or believe) that such frauds are being tackled.......(in the strategic rather than tactical sense) Some UK forces have no fraud investigation commitment at all, so the Met' and the City of London are keen to big themselves up in this respect.
Son is allowed to discuss fraud matters with father. I have 30yrs police experience (including 15yrs fraud investigation experience) to pass on to him. I am still engaged in fraud investigation, but within the corporate arena. Public/Private partnerships are welcome according to this government!
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>>The latest wheeze is to send a fake email that pretends to be a returned copy of an email that failed to reach the intended recipient. These get through the anti-spam filters.
Thanks for mentioning that; I had my first one of those today, had me confused for a moment!
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there must be a fair few scam e-mails about then........my wife recieved one last week allegedly from PayPal..
she doesn't use e Bay, doesn't have a Pay Pal account, nor a credit card for that matter...
PayPal thanked her for her e-mail that she sent them informing them of the scam, but that's the last we've heard
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>>The latest wheeze is to send a fake email that pretends to be a returned copy of an email that failed to reach the intended recipient. These get through the anti-spam filters. Thanks for mentioning that; I had my first one of those today, had me confused for a moment!
At first they had me confused too. The aim is for you to click on the attachment, which is supposed to be the returned email. But instead it infects your PC with a virus or a trojan, which might then run software to sniff your bank account details, PayPal details, etc. or send spam to others.
Some even got through at work last week.
Leif
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rather topical........brother rang me yesterday for advice on motorcycle he was likely to have to collect on behalf of customer who was bidding on e-bay........'something didn't seem right'....price was a bit low and description inc dets about it being off road only etc and this element was 'overplayed' in his opinion.
managed to get chassis number off seller, via e-mail.....
police check showed it was stolen 3 years ago.
reported it to Thames Valley Police 9.30pm last night and 12 noon today got a phone call from Aylesbury Police... bike recovered from premises, miscreant or innocent seller not there, but they'll be returning to arrest for Handling Stolen Goods........and now want a statement.
buyer beware on these things.....even 20 years later it still belongs to the original owner (or insurance company if they've asssumed ownership), however many times it would have changed hands.... and who would want to spend an afternoon in a police cell whilst ownsership of something stolen was looked into.
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ebay can also be over vigilant
i recently tried to sell some "fake " sunglasses.
BUT i said very clearly in the ad that they were copies and not the real/genuine arcticle.
within a few hours i had received an email from ebay telling me that they were withdrawing my sale as it was a copy and not an original item
fair do's..................
but what about the people who sell the workshop manuals on cd for £2.50 ?????
ive bought one for my bmw one for my vw and another for my honda,,, and they are ALL copies..
thx to someone a little higher up the page ,, i now know how to report the fake items..
and lets be honest,,, in the real world who is silly enough to buy a car from somewhere miles aways,,,theyve never seen and a vehicle theyve never seen??????? they have no idea what they are buying and no idea who the person is and no idea what they are getting into
--
www.storme.co.uk
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When buying vehicles on e-bay i always pay on collection . I then turn up earlier than arranged using the excuse of just making sure I had the directions right etc never have the money on me will just have to pop to the cash point, always take someone with you , always have a mobile prefferably with camera or better still video camera facility very usefull to record sound discretely if needed . If at all concerned phone a mate before you knock on the vendors door and make sure they know exactly where you are , get them to phone you back after a few minutes ...Cheers...Keo.
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Just had an email of thanks from Ebay after using the procedure mentioned above to report yet another obvious scam offer. The email was full of assurances that Ebay is concerned to stop identity theft etc, but I'm not convinced. Shouldn't this sort of thing - email only contact to a different address, for example - trigger an alarm when the item is listed?
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I had occasion to meet with eBay some time ago and inter alia discovered the following.
eBay do have procedures for scanning listings before they go live. It may have speeded up a bit recently, but most listings don't go 'live' for 15 minutes, up to two hours. Look for guns or alcohol on eBay, and you won't find any. Scam listings are much harder to identify by automatic checking.
eBay work very closely with law enforcement authorities, particularly with regard to shutting down the origins of spoof emails. But it's generally very difficult as spoofers tend to be in third world countries. Spoof sites are seldom up for even so long as a week before being shut down.
In general, eBay rely on punters to report suspicious activity, but imo they are very poor at pulling illicit listings.
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Ebay's listings are scanned as soon as the submit button is clicked. They don't like ads with DVD and copy in them, for example.
What they don't seem to be able to do is scan ads with obvious scammers' tricks, such as "do not contact me via Ebay"
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