This may be known to several of you but for those of you who buy or sell
Ten-Tec gear on eBay, there appears to be another really slick trick being
used to scam bidders:
A couple days ago, I received an e-mail from someone who I thought was the
original seller of an eBay auction for a ~ $1500 transceiver. The e-mail
was composed in HTML and looked as if it was generated through eBay's
legitimate "Second Chance Auction" service wherein if the original winning
bidder fails to make payment, the seller may then sell to the next highest
bidder through eBay (including eBay's buyer protection services, etc.). In
fact, the e-mail included a link to eBay's page that discusses this "second
chance" service (and of course, shows a good eBay URL in the browser window)
and at the end of the e-mail, they link to multiple eBay pages that discuss
eBay fraud, Internet fraud and how we can all help create a fraud-free
Internet community. So far, I'm interested. Then it hit me. How (and why)
did they send this to my non-eBay e-mail address? In my head, the red
flags were flying and the sirens began to roar.
I then looked up the auction item number and noticed that my bid was
actually ten bids deep. Not only had I not bid anywhere near the winning
bid amount, but the history showed positive feedback from both parties on
this very transaction. In reality, there was no "second chance" being
offered by the original seller. A predator is searching closed high bid
amount auctions and it preying upon the loosing bidders by offering a
"second chance" since they presumably got burned by the original winning
bidder. And guess were your money is being diverted?
I would caution anyone to refrain from clicking on the familiar "Pay Now"
button within the e-mail without first conducting due-diligence by
contacting the original seller outside the e-mail post. And since eBay
hides user e-mail addresses, you cannot tell right away if the sender of
e-mail is legitimate. This one is crafty. Caveat Emptor!
-Paul, W9AC
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