E-bay letter - is this a scam from someone pretending to be eBay
By Debs_place
@Debs_place (10520)
United States
February 7, 2007 6:53pm CST
I have not logged on to ebay in maybe 3 or 4 years. Today I got this in my email.
Anyone know what this is:
Dear eBay Member,
We regret to inform you that your eBay account will be suspended due to concerns we have for the safety and integrity of the eBay community.
"Abusing eBay" of the eBay User Agreement states, in part:
"...we may limit, suspend, or terminate our service and user accounts, prohibit access to our website, remove hosted content, and take technical and legal steps to keep users off the Site if we think that they are creating problems, possible legal liabilities, or acting inconsistently with the letter or spirit of our policies."
Due to the suspension of this account, please be advised you are prohibited from using eBay in any way. This includes the registering of a new account.
To avoide this suspension please login into you account and follow the instructions:
https://signin.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?SignIncopartnerId=2pUserId= siteid=0page
Please note that any seller fees due to eBay will immediately become due and payable. eBay will charge any amounts you have not previously disputed to the billing method currently on file.
Thanks for your patience as we work together to protect your service.
Regards,
Safeharbor Department
eBay, Inc
10 people like this
39 responses
@bestisyettocome (1531)
• United States
8 Feb 07
I've gotten these letters from "ebay" and from "chase". I think every legit website has a spoof@email address. You did the right thing. I've done it lots of times. I just wish they would stop coming altogether!
3 people like this
@Debs_place (10520)
• United States
8 Feb 07
You are right, I changed my ebay password anyhow and they sent me this link.
Though it may help every one.
http://pages.ebay.com/education/spooftutorial/
You get a +
2 people like this
@cololuvr (55)
• United States
8 Feb 07
I am glad you were able to figure out that the email was a phishing scam. Any email that starts off with "customer" or "member" instead of your name is trying to get your personal information and possibly steal your identity. Never give anyone your SSN or pin number, etc. to any accounts you have. I had a phony email from "paypal" a couple of times. They always started with "Dear Paypal member". What a scam. Good luck to you in catching those phishers!
@Debs_place (10520)
• United States
8 Feb 07
Yup, you are right on the money.
the mail began with dear ebay member and that is what the help page said
Thanks
Everyone gets a plus for caring!
1 person likes this
@jolanda33 (720)
• Netherlands
8 Feb 07
it is a scam! ebay will never ask you to fill in your name and password! just send this complete email to ebay! it happend to me several times two years ago, but after sending them to ebay it never happend again!
2 people like this
@dutchess67 (917)
• United States
8 Feb 07
I get these letters all the time. The best way to find out for certain if this originated from e-bay is to forward it to their fraud department (their e-mail address is spoof@ebay.com) and they will get back to you very quickly.
Another surefire way to know if the message originated from e-bay is to go to e-bay (don't use the link in the e-mail message) and sign in to your account. Check your "my ebay" page and the mail box there. Any messages sent to you from e-bay will be in your message box there.
Hope this helps!
3 people like this
@Debs_place (10520)
• United States
8 Feb 07
Did it
Thank you
Everyone gets a plus for caring!
2 people like this
@Ciniful (1587)
• Canada
8 Feb 07
Well, self explanatory it seems ... you've been suspended by Ebay and are further prohibited from using their services, or at least until you straighten the mess out. The letter appears to be legitimate, as is the sign in link, so there's no issue of false representation.
Now, you say you haven't signed in for 3 years or so. This actually has very little to do with it. What matters more is what activity took place before you became inactive. Did you commit to buy on items and then never forward payment? Did you back out of sales? These are the issues you need to resolve.
It may have simply taken ebay or it's users that have had conflict with you this long to get organized and decide to remove your account. Or it could have been a routine sweep of the server when they noticed your account status.
Regardless, if you believe it's a mistake, contact Ebay and attempt to sort it out. If you don't intend to use ebay again, don't worry about it and move on.
2 people like this
@dutchess67 (917)
• United States
8 Feb 07
You're wrong, I'm sorry, but these messages get sent out all the time, they're called "phishing" and they ARE attempts to get the passwords and id's of people who have legitimate accounts. A person can suddenly find themselves responsible for purchases they didn't make or for refunding money on items that were sold, but never existed.
I certainly wouldn't let something like this go and "not worry about it".
3 people like this
@Debs_place (10520)
• United States
8 Feb 07
spoof@ebay.com is the id to send the letter to and I did.
Also, Dear Ebay customer is another way and it was not in my ebay messages.
So it was phishing.
Everyone gets a plus for caring!
2 people like this
@mssnow (9484)
• United States
8 Feb 07
Dont do it. its a way to get your name and passsword. Send the letter to ebay and tell them about the scam. There is one going around for paypal too. If they send you a letter they dont send you a url to sign in. Yes Report them and tell everyone you know about this.
2 people like this
@rockslide (689)
• United States
8 Feb 07
looks like someone hacked your account and used your name to sell things maybe or buy things then didnt pay or deliver goods. They probably have ruined your name on ebay. You should contact them and see wwhats going on.
2 people like this
@beckyomg1 (6756)
• United States
8 Feb 07
anything from actual ebay will not say dear ebay member, it will have your name like you signed up for it. yes watchout for those bogus letters.
1 person likes this
@lafavorito (2959)
• Philippines
8 Feb 07
It's definitely a spoof email or scam. Don't go to that link! If you do they can have access to your password, even your paypal account and might participate in biddings under your account.
Report the email to ebay as soon as possible. This link might help.
http://pages.ebay.com/education/spooftutorial/index.html
2 people like this
@irisheyes (4370)
• United States
8 Feb 07
I get this notice a couple times a year. Usually, I just ignore it but you should forward it to customerservice@eabay.com. I used to always forward the email but it's just gotten to be a nuissance.
2 people like this
@saleem785javed (47)
• Sweden
8 Feb 07
I too think it is safe to contact the E-bay through email first before giving ur id and password .....may be it is a spam which will revel ur pwd to unknown person who may miss use ur account also.....
1 person likes this
@jayperiod (870)
• United States
8 Feb 07
I sent a few of them to ebay for verification and they told me a few ways to make sure something really came from them. First of all, they wouldn't start the letter, "Dear ebay member." They would use the name on the account. Second, you can go to your message center on your "my ebay" page. If it's not there as well, its a scam. Third, send it to their fraud department and they'll email you back to let you know.
Always be careful. There is some real scum out there. I feel those trying to seal identities are worse than serial murderers. Start frying a few of them in electric chairs and most would quit.
2 people like this
@ram13288 (387)
• United States
8 Feb 07
this is definitely a scam so dont do it because all they want is to get your information. if you havent used ebay in three years then why all of a sudden would they send you a email saying that you have been doing something wrong. that is the first sign that it is a scam.
1 person likes this
@flowerchilde (12529)
• United States
8 Feb 07
I think it's likely fake, trying to get you to disclose your user info.. The thing to always remember is to go straight to ebay (dot com) itself for any signing in, and not to links sent via email. This prevents the abuse, and works for any other site as well.
@krish1180 (97)
• India
8 Feb 07
dont worry man nothins going to affect u or ur computer
1 person likes this
@fabwisp (1327)
•
8 Feb 07
If it is a genuine ebay message it will be in your messages section on ebay itself. This was the reason they added a message section so that they could send official messages direct to your account rather than email addy. My guess is its a scam ignore it and report it to ebay.
1 person likes this
@marief2rnurse (2704)
• United States
8 Feb 07
You should never pay attention to emails about ebay. It's safer to just log on to your account on ebay. When I was new to ebay, I almost got fooled by people selling Nokia phones in Romania. And always always deal with people with high standings. I can't believe how many scams are going on in ebay. I even found a bunch of stories about people scammed on ebay... have bought cars and paid and never got the car. The money was transferred to a bank overseas and so forth... what has the world turned into?
1 person likes this
