New eBay scam

Tom Keating : VoIP & Gadgets Blog
Tom Keating
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New eBay scam


Just received an email spam purporting to be from eBay. It's obviously not from eBay or I wouldn't be blogging about it! ;) Anyway, the email looks exactly like your typical "Question from eBay Member" emails. In fact, it sports the same exact subject line. The body of the message looks nearly identical to the legitimate eBay question from member email. The body of the message says, "eBay sent this message on behalf of an eBay member via My Messages. Responses sent using email will go to the eBay member directly and will include your email address. Click the Respond Now button below to send your response via My Messages (your email address will not be included)."

It is followed by the message from the "supposed" eBay buyer - "Hello , I have bid on your item , can you please contact me and tell me how much is shipping to zip code 92110 ? Thank you very much for your response" (ZIP code is very close to the famous 90210 zipcode - lazy scammer bastards!) Anyway, the email looks legit enough that if you have a current eBay auction going, you may be tempted to click. Social engineering at its best. I didn't check out the site since with the latest Firefox vulnerability and IE flaws, I'm not taking any chances. The domain of the scammer is higaweb.com in case someone else gets the same scam email. While email scams are nothing new, I will have to say that most email scams have broken English, poor graphics, and are poorly designed. This email looked EXACTLY like eBay's "Question from Member" email, which indicates much more sophistication on the part of the scammer. Or perhaps the scammers are finally honing their craft? Either way, it's a scary thought.

Although, I will say there was broken English within the supposed eBay buyer's message, i.e. "Hello, I have bid on your item" as opposed to "Hello, I have a bid on your item." But I know when I put auctions online I get questions that often have broken English that are legitimate questions. So perhaps they used broken English for the seller, but nice professional English + graphics for the eBay portion of the email to make it seem more legitimate. Using broken English to make it seem legit? There is definitely some irony here.

Anyway, click the image above for a full-size screenshot of the email I received.



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