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    Sunday, November 11, 2007

    Scary Spamming Scamming

    BACKGROUND Part 1: I use my "primary" email address on eBay, always have. We have another email address, completely different domain, that I use mostly for registering online, etc. so the spam and ads don't come into my everyday address.

    BACKGROUND Part 2: Greg has been bidding on a certain type of cell phone on eBay for WEEKS, and has bid on several from the same seller, having won one a couple weeks ago, and another this weekend. But he bid on several between the first and second, all from the same seller, who we have had regular contact with. But we've always corresponded through our primary email as that is, again, the only one we use on eBay.

    So today, in our JUNK email Inbox, we get this:

    Dear "xxxxxxx",

    You expressed interest on this item. I'm the seller of this item on which you've recently bid on through the eBay system ( Item # xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx ) and I've contacted you because I need to know if you are still interested to buy ... Email me as soon as possible with your answer because I must to know if is necesarly to find another buyer or if you can buy the item(i need to know your final price)...If you accept this offer the eBay policy automatically proclaims you winner. The transaction will go strictly according to eBay's RULES and POLICY and will be supervised by eBay Trust & Safety Department. If you are interested just reply to this message. I am waiting a fast response! Thankyou!

    Now. We know it's fraudulent, no question. Primarily b/c we KNOW the email address of the real seller. The strange, and scary part, is this: We DID bid on the auction number he cited in his email. We DID. But, and this is the crux of the issue, WE DO NOT USE THAT EMAIL ADDRESS ON EBAY! So how did he know to contact us at THAT email address about an item we DID bid on, but under a DIFFERENT email address? Scary stuff. My only guess is that the email addresses have the same thing before the @, so I guess if he sent it to all the domains with that user name, it may have gotten to us - but geez, what are the chances?

    So, after I reported him to eBay, AND to the real seller, I sent him back this:

    Actually, you are NOT the seller of this item. We have worked with the seller of this item before, and it is not YOU. He has our REAL email address, not this one for SPAM. This email address is not even registered on ebay for our ID, so you must have just sent this to every "xxxxxxx" you could find. We have reported you to EBAY as a SCAMMER, you pile of crap. We are also informing the REAL seller of this item that you are posing as him. Get a life.

    Assholes. His email username is a banned ID on ebay, so I'm guessing that was the same guy.

    Happy Sunday, anyway...

    5 comments:

    Anonymous said...
    This comment has been removed by the author.
    Anonymous said...

    I love "you pile of crap." Laughed out loud, literally.

    http://ataleoftwocounties.blogspot.com/

    Anonymous said...

    BTW, I posted twice, got some weird jarbled message the first time. :)

    Deb said...

    A-holes.

    Anonymous said...

    Scary that this kind of scam actually works on some people - that's why they are still scamming. Glad you weren't sucked in - but I'm feeling pretty bad for the 85 year old woman that was. Hope ebay's able to shut him down. YAY on your phone purchases!