e-Bay Second Chance Spoof

[cultonc]

I placed a bid using e-bay for a King 2341 Tuba that was being offered for sale by Cash America Internet Sales. I did not make the winning bid but several days later I received a second chance offer to purchase the tuba at the price I bid. This e-mail ( and following e-mails) appeared to come from ebay and had an ebay URL. I accepted the offer and using the contact seller option i made arrangements for the purchase. After transfering funds to a secure "escrow" account I did not receive any further notice or bill of sale. I contacted ebay and was advised that this was a spoof and ebay did not send out any of the correcpondence I received. I attempted to stop payment but it was too late. I found out the someone must of hacked ebays system got the email addresses of loosing bidders and sent out the phishing emails. I lost $2,200 and have no tuba to show for it. NEVER trust any correspondence no matter how official looking offering a second chance. There is a good chance they are a fraud. eBay will not accept any responsibility for this and it appears they do not protect bidders information from being hacked.
"Tuba" charlie

[hbcrandy]

Not buying through "Second Chance" offers is good advice. Over the years, dealing with Ebay, I have been received numerous second chance offers. One was on an item that I won and made payment. Always beware!

In Ebay's defense, if a human being can design an encryption program to protect data, such as Ebay users, another human being can also figure out the same encryption sequence and hack it.

[Michael Bush]

Yep. I'm sorry you've had to go through that. Paying through PayPal is they key. Yes they can be a headache, especially early in the history of a PayPal account, but it has been years since I've had any problem with them, and on the few occasions when I've had to go through buyer protection it has gotten the fat out of the fire pretty much painlessly.

[imperialbari]

There is a twist to the second chance offers that invite to scamming as I see it.

Normal auction procedures here say that if the high bidder doesn't cough up, the item goes the runner up. NOT at his top bidding, but by the relevant bid increment above the top bidding of the original third bidder. eBay's system invites to shill bidding by a seller proxy to call the amount entered by the runner up.

I once got a second chance offering, but refused to pay my top bid. I sent the amount that would have been the right one according to Danish law (the seller was in Austria, which has similar laws on auctions). And got the item. Even got a missing spare crook in a second (free) sending, even if the seller claimed I owed him the difference up to my entered bid. I never paid that difference because I gambled that if the seller would complain to eBay he would have revealed his shill scheme. I came out on top.

Klaus

[pgym]

Sorry you got burned, but at the same time, it's not like the Ebay second chance scam hasn't been widely reported and tips for spotting fraudulent second chance offers (including the request to deal with the seller directly rather than through ebay and for payment outside the ebay ecosystem) aren't easy to find.

Also, if it is still the case that sellers receive an email that contains a bidder's id when a bid is placed, the scammers could have obtained your info by hacking Cash America's server, which would likely be a heck of a lot easier than hacking ebay's database directly.

One more thing: you should assume that the scammer(s) has (have) your bank account number. It would be prudent for you to contact your financial institution(s) and close your account(s) and set up new accounts.

You should also assume that the scammers can use the info you provided to obtain your credit records, and that you are about to become the victim of financial identity theft. It would be prudent to contact:

your bank and credit card issuers, to alert them to watch for fraudulent charges on your existing accounts and to ask them to issue new account numbers and cards;

the credit rating services (Experian, Equifax, Transunion), to put a security freeze on your account to prevent new accounts from being opened or loans being issued in your name (n.b.: a simple "fraud alert" is not sufficient because credit issuers can ignore a fraud alert if they so choose; by federal law, a security freeze requires any creditor to confirm your identity with you prior to opening any new account) and to obtain your credit report);

the police, to file a report of the ebay spoof fraud (while it is highly unlikely that this will help you recover your money, it will establish a terminus a quo for any disputes with creditors arising from subsequent fraudulent activity by the scammers).

If (when) you are the actual victim of identity theft fraud, contact the police and file an identity theft affidavit. (Some dept's may attempt to discourage you from filing a report. Stand your ground on this, since may credit card companies and creditors require an official police report to repair damage to your credit rating and to close fraudulent accounts. You can expedite the process by filling out the FTC Identity Theft Victim’s Complaint and Affidavit, which will assist the officer taking the report, ahead of time.)

[chronolith]

I don't deal with eBay very much but I assume that there are also legitimate second chance offers. If so, can they be found as part of the regular eBay interface when you log in? It is not hard for a mischievous person to format an official looking email and even to spoof the address that it appears to be coming from, so when in doubt just log back into ebay regardless of the links in the email to see what eBay itself has to say about it.

I am sorry you got hit by this. It is hard to keep a high opinion (or even a decent one - depending on your outlook) of humanity when these things happen.

[pgym]

I don't deal with eBay very much but I assume that there are also legitimate second chance offers. If so, can they be found as part of the regular eBay interface when you log in? It is not hard for a mischievous person to format an official looking email and even to spoof the address that it appears to be coming from, so when in doubt just log back into ebay regardless of the links in the email to see what eBay itself has to say about it.

From eBay:

Receiving and accepting a Second Chance Offer

Make sure the Second Chance Offer is legitimate

We'll never send a Second Chance Offer email with the subject line "Message from eBay Member." If you receive an email with that subject line, it's a fake. Forward the email to spoof@ebay.com" target="_blank" target="_blank.

Learn more about recognizing and reporting fake emails.

Here's how you'd receive a legitimate Second Chance Offer notice:

On the ended listing page:

After a listing ends, you may see a Second Chance Offer message on the ended listing page stating that you've received a Second Chance Offer on this item. To view the details and buy the item, click the Second Chance Offer link.

In the Messages section of My eBay: you'll receive a Second Chance Offer email from eBay in your inbox.

In My eBay: Go to My eBay. In the Buy section, click Didn't Win.

How to tell if an email is really from eBay

The easiest way to make sure an email is from us is to check your messages in My eBay. Go to My eBay, and then click the Messages tab. If you don't see the same message there, the email is fake.

[chronolith]

Thought this might be the case. Thanks pgym.