bharris68
02-23-2007, 07:59 AM
Earlier this week I had an auction end for a solar setup, ~$500 worth in it's present condition. 20 minutes before it's due to close, I get an email about shipping to Canada from a guy with NO feedback and NO ratings.. I let him know that I'll be happy to freight but that he'll be liable for crating, banding batteries and packing, border inspection, etc... :laugh:
Suddenley the auction shoots up like $300 from where it's been sitting for like a week :hmmm:
Long story short - something was wrong and fortunately a friend of mine won the auction, but I sold it to him at the price he'd been originally bidding. On a hunch I forwarded the guys account to the Fraud team at eBay.
Here's my original mail:
Module Reported: Feedback
Reason for report: This account has been "active" since 03? Why, in 4 years, has this user not bid on anything, or sold anything?
I was contacted today about some Solar equipment and 20 minutes prior to ending s/he asked if I'd package for shipping to Canada. I replied that I would, but that they would be reponsible for freight, crating, packing, tailgate freight & insurance. Before I could receive a reply the auction shot up $300 or more dollars over where it had been prior.
Again - I never received a reply about WHERE in Canada OR how they intended to pay for the freight, etc. for it.
Given that the whole package was not worth more than $1,000 US, I'd not expect anyone to pay more than $750 US for it - Freight would put that over the cost of a new system purchased locally.
This account appears to be empty and likely looks to be waiting to commit fraud.
That's just my .02 on it ;)
Kind regards,
--bharris68--
[title]
[employer]
They sent this to me this Morning - bolding mine:
Dear Brett,
Thank you for writing eBay in regards to member 'pear___ason'
The bids placed using this account occurred during an unauthorized account takeover. We took immediate action to stop the activity as soon as we discovered the situation. We are now in the process of restoring the account to its rightful owner.
Because the account holder didn't actually bid on your listing, please consider the sale incomplete.
If you've already shipped the item, you have the following options (details are included below):
- Try to stop shipment
- Contact the credit card company or payment issuer
- File a report with local law enforcement
- File a complaint with The Internet Crime Complaint Center
- File a complaint of mail fraud
- Request a Final Value Fee credit
***Note***
At the end of this email, you'll find some possible explanations for how this could have happened.
Stop Shipment
Please contact the shipping company directly.
Contact the Credit Card Company and File a Report with Local Law Enforcement
Contact the company that was used to send payment to determine whether or not funds have cleared. If the item was paid for with fraudulent funds, you should report the incident to the police in the area where the buyer lives. Be as specific as possible, including names, addresses, phone numbers, or any other information that you have about the buyer.
To find the name of a local law enforcement officer who can help you, please go to:
http://www.usacops.com
If a detective is assigned to your case, please ask him or her to contact us so that we can assist in the investigation. Ask the detective to use the "report information to eBay" link in our Help page. Simply go
to:
http://pages.ebay.com/help/confidence/isgw-fraud-ebays-role.html
File a Complaint with The Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3)
The IC3 is a partnership between the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the National White Collar Crime Center. The IC3 will refer complaints to the appropriate local, state, or federal agency. Every complaint that is referred by the IC3 is sent to one or more law enforcement agency with jurisdiction over the report. To file a complaint with the IC3, go to:
http://www.ic3.gov/
File a Complaint of Mail Fraud
If your package was shipped via the U.S. Postal Service, you may be able to file a mail fraud complaint. To learn more, please go to:
https://www.usps.com/postalinspectors/fraud/MailFraudComplaint.htm
Request a Final Value Fee Credit
You may be eligible for a Final Value Fee credit if the buyer doesn't pay for the sale, provided that less than 45 days have elapsed since the listing ended. To be eligible for a Final Value Fee credit, you need to first file an Unpaid Item dispute. To begin the Unpaid Item process, go
to:
http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/unpaid-item.html
Click the "File an Unpaid Item dispute" link. You may be asked to sign in.
To request the credit, follow these steps:
1. Click the "My eBay" tab located at the top of most eBay pages. You may need to sign in.
2. Click the "Dispute Console" link on the left side of the page.
3. Click the "View" link next to the item to see its current status.
***Important***
Check the status of the item before going on to Step 4. If you close the dispute and the item isn't yet eligible for credit, you won't get the credit.
4. If the item is eligible for credit, you'll see a check mark next to the item. Click "Close Dispute," and then select the reason.
How This Might Have Happened
It could have occurred in a number of ways, including:
- Fake (also known as "spoof") email messages are being sent to eBay members asking for User IDs and passwords. These messages look like they're sent by eBay Support but they are not. eBay will never ask for sensitive information of this nature via email.
For more information about how to spot spoof email, go to:
http://pages.ebay.com/education/spooftutorial/
- Someone guessed the member's password. For this reason, it's important to use a password that uses a combination of letters and numbers, making it very difficult to guess. The same applies for the password hint question. It's also important to use different passwords for the various online accounts you use (such as email, PayPal, and so on).
For information about choosing a secure password, go to:
http://pages.ebay.com/help/confidence/password-secure.html
- A computer virus recorded the member's keystrokes. We recommend that all members keep their antivirus software up to date and use a firewall.
Sorry for the inconveneince. Thank you for choosing eBay.
Sincerely,
Clark
eBay Customer Support
______________________________
eBay
Your Personal Trading Community (tm)
*******************************************
Important: eBay will not ask you for sensitive personal information (such as your password, credit card and bank account numbers, Social Security numbers, etc.) in an email. Learn more account protection tips
at:
http://www.pages.ebay.com/help/account_protection.html
_____________________________________________
For our latest announcements, please check:
http://www2.ebay.com/aw/announce.shtml
_____________________________________________
In order to better serve you, we'd like to occasionally request feedback on our service. If you would rather not participate, please click on the link below and send us an email with the word "REMOVE" in the subject line.
If that does not work, please send an email to the email address below. Your request will be processed within 5 days.
mailto:cssremove@ebay.com
*******************************************
Suddenley the auction shoots up like $300 from where it's been sitting for like a week :hmmm:
Long story short - something was wrong and fortunately a friend of mine won the auction, but I sold it to him at the price he'd been originally bidding. On a hunch I forwarded the guys account to the Fraud team at eBay.
Here's my original mail:
Module Reported: Feedback
Reason for report: This account has been "active" since 03? Why, in 4 years, has this user not bid on anything, or sold anything?
I was contacted today about some Solar equipment and 20 minutes prior to ending s/he asked if I'd package for shipping to Canada. I replied that I would, but that they would be reponsible for freight, crating, packing, tailgate freight & insurance. Before I could receive a reply the auction shot up $300 or more dollars over where it had been prior.
Again - I never received a reply about WHERE in Canada OR how they intended to pay for the freight, etc. for it.
Given that the whole package was not worth more than $1,000 US, I'd not expect anyone to pay more than $750 US for it - Freight would put that over the cost of a new system purchased locally.
This account appears to be empty and likely looks to be waiting to commit fraud.
That's just my .02 on it ;)
Kind regards,
--bharris68--
[title]
[employer]
They sent this to me this Morning - bolding mine:
Dear Brett,
Thank you for writing eBay in regards to member 'pear___ason'
The bids placed using this account occurred during an unauthorized account takeover. We took immediate action to stop the activity as soon as we discovered the situation. We are now in the process of restoring the account to its rightful owner.
Because the account holder didn't actually bid on your listing, please consider the sale incomplete.
If you've already shipped the item, you have the following options (details are included below):
- Try to stop shipment
- Contact the credit card company or payment issuer
- File a report with local law enforcement
- File a complaint with The Internet Crime Complaint Center
- File a complaint of mail fraud
- Request a Final Value Fee credit
***Note***
At the end of this email, you'll find some possible explanations for how this could have happened.
Stop Shipment
Please contact the shipping company directly.
Contact the Credit Card Company and File a Report with Local Law Enforcement
Contact the company that was used to send payment to determine whether or not funds have cleared. If the item was paid for with fraudulent funds, you should report the incident to the police in the area where the buyer lives. Be as specific as possible, including names, addresses, phone numbers, or any other information that you have about the buyer.
To find the name of a local law enforcement officer who can help you, please go to:
http://www.usacops.com
If a detective is assigned to your case, please ask him or her to contact us so that we can assist in the investigation. Ask the detective to use the "report information to eBay" link in our Help page. Simply go
to:
http://pages.ebay.com/help/confidence/isgw-fraud-ebays-role.html
File a Complaint with The Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3)
The IC3 is a partnership between the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the National White Collar Crime Center. The IC3 will refer complaints to the appropriate local, state, or federal agency. Every complaint that is referred by the IC3 is sent to one or more law enforcement agency with jurisdiction over the report. To file a complaint with the IC3, go to:
http://www.ic3.gov/
File a Complaint of Mail Fraud
If your package was shipped via the U.S. Postal Service, you may be able to file a mail fraud complaint. To learn more, please go to:
https://www.usps.com/postalinspectors/fraud/MailFraudComplaint.htm
Request a Final Value Fee Credit
You may be eligible for a Final Value Fee credit if the buyer doesn't pay for the sale, provided that less than 45 days have elapsed since the listing ended. To be eligible for a Final Value Fee credit, you need to first file an Unpaid Item dispute. To begin the Unpaid Item process, go
to:
http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/unpaid-item.html
Click the "File an Unpaid Item dispute" link. You may be asked to sign in.
To request the credit, follow these steps:
1. Click the "My eBay" tab located at the top of most eBay pages. You may need to sign in.
2. Click the "Dispute Console" link on the left side of the page.
3. Click the "View" link next to the item to see its current status.
***Important***
Check the status of the item before going on to Step 4. If you close the dispute and the item isn't yet eligible for credit, you won't get the credit.
4. If the item is eligible for credit, you'll see a check mark next to the item. Click "Close Dispute," and then select the reason.
How This Might Have Happened
It could have occurred in a number of ways, including:
- Fake (also known as "spoof") email messages are being sent to eBay members asking for User IDs and passwords. These messages look like they're sent by eBay Support but they are not. eBay will never ask for sensitive information of this nature via email.
For more information about how to spot spoof email, go to:
http://pages.ebay.com/education/spooftutorial/
- Someone guessed the member's password. For this reason, it's important to use a password that uses a combination of letters and numbers, making it very difficult to guess. The same applies for the password hint question. It's also important to use different passwords for the various online accounts you use (such as email, PayPal, and so on).
For information about choosing a secure password, go to:
http://pages.ebay.com/help/confidence/password-secure.html
- A computer virus recorded the member's keystrokes. We recommend that all members keep their antivirus software up to date and use a firewall.
Sorry for the inconveneince. Thank you for choosing eBay.
Sincerely,
Clark
eBay Customer Support
______________________________
eBay
Your Personal Trading Community (tm)
*******************************************
Important: eBay will not ask you for sensitive personal information (such as your password, credit card and bank account numbers, Social Security numbers, etc.) in an email. Learn more account protection tips
at:
http://www.pages.ebay.com/help/account_protection.html
_____________________________________________
For our latest announcements, please check:
http://www2.ebay.com/aw/announce.shtml
_____________________________________________
In order to better serve you, we'd like to occasionally request feedback on our service. If you would rather not participate, please click on the link below and send us an email with the word "REMOVE" in the subject line.
If that does not work, please send an email to the email address below. Your request will be processed within 5 days.
mailto:cssremove@ebay.com
*******************************************