And Yet Another Scam

[Pete Dickey]

The scammers seem to be very active at the moment. I've just had an offer of a second chance bid on a Lachenal which I know is definitely going through as Chris Algar bought it. The text of the offer is as follows:-

 

You expressed interest in an item titled Lachenal 30 Button Concertina Item number: 3727056707 by bidding,however the auction has ended with another member as the high bidder.In compliance with eBay policy, the seller,smatic207 is making this Second Chance Offer to you at your bid price of £500.00.The seller has issued this Second Chance Offer because either the winning bidder was unable to complete the transaction or the seller has duplicate items for sale.If you accept this offer, you will be able to exchange Feedback with the seller and will be eligible for eBay services associated with a transaction, such as fraud protection.

This offer expires Monday, Jun 28, 2004 19:01:36 PST. To purchase this item, don't reply to this mail, just contact the seller at rapid3067@yahoo.com.

To see this item, click on the following page:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vie...3727056707&rd=1

To learn more about Second Chance Offer go to:

http://pages.ebay.com/help/sell/personal_offer.html

Thank you,

eBay, Inc.

 

Thank you,

uniqmorsov

 

I replied saying I was interested and could I have an address to send my money to. I got the reply:-

 

Hello Pete,

Yes the concertina is still available.Please give me your full name,address and eBay ID.

I will take care of delivery while eBay will send you an email with payment information.

Please reply a.s.a.p. with your details.

Thank you!

Naturally I have reported it to Ebay. The original post address was caramela@ourwest.com. Note the contact address of rapid3067@yahoo.com.

 

Hope this might help someone else not to get scammed and yes I realise you can probably work out my ebay name from it, but this is more important. I'll continue playing along to see what happens and report any further developments.

 

Pete

[Pete Dickey]

To continue the saga, I asked the "seller" where he was based since a friend would call and have a look at it. The reply was as follows:-

 

Hello Pete,

Yes I am in UK,London...I am not sure if I can arrange to meet your pal...you see I am devorcing from my wife and I am also very bussy with my job and everything...

 

So clearly this guy is really after my ebay account. I also ran Ad-aware, a spyware checker, after opening up his mail. This found a data-miner had been downloaded, possibly looking for keystrokes for passwords. I have since changed my passwords.

 

The lesson is therefore not even to open correspondence if you can help it and to keep anti-virus and spyware checking software up to date.

 

Hope this has been of help to someone.

 

Pete