eBay Spoof emails

I’ve only been hit by these once, but have almost entered my login info on a spoof site on several occasions.  Spoof emails are fake emails sent by scammers that are trying to gain access to your account information.  They send emails to you that look authentic usually having to do with account suspension, fraud, or unauthorized access.  If you’re not careful you will end up putting your info into a fake site and possibly losing access to your eBay account for good.

Spoof emails suck and suck bad, some look so real you can’t believe they didn’t come from eBay; others are pretty easy to spot.  The sad thing is, many people are still taken advantage of by even the most obvious spoof emails, especially new users. 

I wasn’t new when I entered my info on a spoof site; I was tired and was having a bad day.  When I saw that my eBay account had been shut down due to illegal content I immediately logged into my account through the link in the email.  When the link didn’t take me to eBay I didn’t think anything of it, but one week later somebody had listed a $3000 item on my eBay account.  I thought it had been a mistake so I immediately shut the auction down.  The next day my account was suspended.

I went through 2 hours of chatting with a helpful eBay staff member to try and regain access to my account.  I found out through the staff member what had happened and how the unauthorized party gained access to my account.

Never, ever log into your eBay account through a third-party (link or website).  Always log in to your account from the eBay home page.  If you encounter a spoof email forward it to spoof@ (delete this space)ebay.com and then delete it immediately. 

I hope this guide has helped, remember to be safe and keep an eye out; it’ll save you a boatload of hassle in the future.

Thank you,

Randall, of Randalls-eBooks

P.S. Check out my blog post featuring screenshots of spoof emails
http://blogs.ebay.ca/randalls_ebooks/entry/Spoof-email-Screenshots-Vol-1/_W0QQentrysyncidZ135924017QQidZ135924017