Many of us, new in the online world, are confused by words like "spoof" emails, or "phishing"....well, I got one of these emails this afternoon. I got an email from what it claimed to be an Ebay member asking me for a tracking number apparently for a laptop and that she claimed to be already paid through paypal. The email was exactly in the same format as previous emails received from my customers asking questions. This email even had the ebay user's name and feedback (114 positive feedbacks). Another thing that I thought it was weird...the bottom of the email said that the sender was a seller and I was bidding to one of this seller's items. Currently I'm only bidding on items from sellers whom I had made purchases in the past, and definitely this was an Ebay seller that I have never heard of before.

First of all, I do not sell laptops, neither in the past. For that reason, this email raised a red flag right away. So, I log in to my ebay and then I went to "Community" tab to check on this person. I typed the member id and this person didn't existed in the Ebay community. Then, I became curious and I clicked on the item URL in the email, which took me to a weird website named "Direct Domain" and it had a message that this domain was suspended. Then, I checked the email address from the email sent to me and I noticed that the domain of the email had two dots (like ebay..com). Right there I realized that it was a spoof email trying to get my info.  

I forwarded the email to ebay customer support which I got a reply within 15 minutes. Customer support replied saying that this email was considered as a "phishing" email, which the senders is "fishing" for the ebay user's information such as paypal info. Beware that there are tons of people looking for the right opportunities to get you. Always analyze the email before providing information to others or even replying. Check if this person is a real Ebay member, or if this person is one of your bidders.In case of doubt, just notify the customer service and they will let you know if it's something to be alarmed or not. This email was definitely alarming to me.