New scam for those using ebay.
@theproperator (2429)
United States
February 27, 2008 9:08pm CST
Has this happened to anyone else? I recieved an email yesterday from someone claiming they were the seller of an item I had bid on a few days prior and had not won. Basically, they were offering me a "second chance" offer and insisted they would be conducting the transaction according to the "rules and regulations of ebay." Of course, there were a few problems with this claim: First, they didn't contact me through ebay, the email they used to contact me isn't even the one linked to my ebay account. Then they asked what my high bid had been, and their email address was not that of the seller of the item. So, obviously, it was easy to spot in this case, but still something I hadn't encountered before.
5 people like this
8 responses
@AICIRT81 (847)
• United States
28 Feb 08
i had something simular happen. I received a second change offer on an item that i did not bid on. I sent a email to ebay and ebay sent me an email stating they were investigating it. if you go to ebays help section there is an email address to forward the spam to.
@theproperator (2429)
• United States
1 Mar 08
I"m not sure there is much ebay can really do, since the offer wasn't made by an ebay member, but I did forward it to them.
@bimmer999 (1158)
• Philippines
28 Feb 08
wow we should be alert and careful about these stuff, even ebay is now being used to scam people..what a shame.
2 people like this
@theproperator (2429)
• United States
1 Mar 08
Yep, you have to be careful online all the time; Especially when money is involved at all.
@redfang (967)
•
29 Feb 08
ERM i'm not sure if you hadn't noticed but ebay has been used for quite some time by scammers and fraudsters, heck ebay owns paypal and they are one of the easiest forms to use now to defraud people of their goods or their money.
Ebay is rife with sellers and buyers who are dishonest and only looking to take you for whatever they can.
1 person likes this
@bonbon664 (3466)
• Canada
28 Feb 08
http://pages.ebay.ca/help/confidence/questions/second-chance-legit.html
There's the link that outlines 2nd chance bids. Bottom line, if there is not a duplicate note in your Ebay messages. Ignore it. Make sure you forward all those suspicious type email to ebay. They need to know what scams are making the rounds. spoof@ebay.com
2 people like this
@theproperator (2429)
• United States
1 Mar 08
I knew immediately it was a scam, because the account the offer came to is not the one I have linked to my ebay account. I did forward it, but I figured I'd post here to to warn some others, too.
@spiderlizard22 (3444)
• United States
28 Feb 08
I would say I bidded five cents on it. If that doesn't work ask to provide the item number, ignore it, or report it.
2 people like this
@theproperator (2429)
• United States
1 Mar 08
Well, they did have the item number in the email. I figure they just went through the bid history for the item and sent the offer to those who hadn't won, hoping we would think they were the real seller.
@creationsbyrobin (3071)
• United States
28 Feb 08
Yes, it is a scam, but not exactly new. This was a popular scam a few years ago. My husband began receiving 2nd chance offers on several items he had bid on, even though he wasn't involved in the bidding later in the auction. Some of his initial bids were about 20% of the value of the item and he received insane 2nd chance offer for just a bit above his top bid.
I am happy that you easily spotted it for the scam is was and hopefully the word gets out before some unsuspecting buyers gets stung!
@mrsjbelle (1640)
• United States
29 Feb 08
Hmm,I dont know if a new scam as I have been getting these emials for years now. Sorry that happened to you. Good thing you saw the red flag and didn't give them any info! Scam artists are getting very creative these days.
2 people like this
@theproperator (2429)
• United States
1 Mar 08
Well, I didn't really think it was new, just new to me, really. I was actually rather insulted because it was so poorly done that I cant' believe anyone would have fallen for it. :-)
@eden32 (3973)
• United States
28 Feb 08
Thanks for the heads up on that. I haven't had that experience yet, but I will certainly pay more attention to the second chance offers I receive. Did you send off an email to ebay? If the person doesn't really have an account with them I doubt there's much they can do about it, but if it's happening to a lot of people they can at least post a warning about it.
2 people like this
@theproperator (2429)
• United States
1 Mar 08
I did forward the email but, as you said, if the person doesn't have an account with ebay (or has it under another email address) there isn't much ebay can really do. I figured posting it here would at least do a bit of good.
@Hatley (163776)
• Garden Grove, California
28 Feb 08
I once got a notice from a so called seller at ebay that I owed them x number of dollars and I had not at that time bought anything on E Bay so I emailed E bay and found out it was a scam and they told me to ignore it while they would look into it.
2 people like this
@theproperator (2429)
• United States
1 Mar 08
Wierd. I guess they were just hoping you were a really busy or forgetful person and wouldn't realize you hadn't bought something from them? I wonder if they ever have luck with that tactic?
