New Ebay Fake Second Chance Offer - how?

I'm a seller on Ebay UK and every day now get messages from bidders saying they have received fake second chance offers for my auctions. My account is not compromised, other sellers I know have the same problem.

The second chance offers have the bidder's name, home address, email address etc on them! Even if my account had been compromised I would not have this information except for the bidder who won the auction. There is no way I could have this info for other bidders.

So how do they get this information? How do they get personal details, the bid amount, the id name etc etc?

Is someone working for ebay leaking out information or has someone hacked ebay? this is the only explanations I cant think of.

Just been notified today by someone else that again, seemingly the same person is sending fake second chance offers and somehow getting bidder's contact information, bid amounts etc.

They have been using this email since April now: [email protected] gmail, ebay and the bank he is using have all been notified and nothing seems to have been done.

These are the details of the bank account they ask payment to, note somehow they have made a bank account with the beneficiary as "Ebay, Inc" at US bank.


eBay Bank Account
Account Number: 1534-9534-6352
SWIFT/BIC: USBKUS44IMT
Beneficiary: eBay, Inc

Beneficiary Address: 2145 Hamilton Avenue, San Jose CA 95125, United States

Bank Name: US Bank
Bank Address: 60 Livingston St. Paul, MN 55107, United States

Though I'm not an expert in the operation of ebay I'm not surprised that it it's possible for a scammer, by means of spoofed messages, to get the information they want. Clearly the scammer isn't operating within the system otherwise buyers wouldn't be facing any losses, though initial contact may be from an ebay account. The victims may not even be fully aware of what's going on. People will usually willingly accept any message they receive as trustworthy unless they have reason to believe otherwise. The fatal mistake victims appear to be making is to be lured in to going outside the protection of the ebay set up.

I'm surprised that ebay haven't reacted more firmly to reports of an account using their name, though I doubt it's actually in the name Ebay, Inc as such. If anyone is allowed to get away with using spoofed bank accounts their whole company is undermined and they would usually be expected to act very vigorously against anyone using their name in any way.

Hi - I've just been scammed by someone using [email protected] and what's turned out to be a fake second chance offer on Ebay.
I'm still trying to figure out how the scammer got to me, as it doesn't seem easy to get the losing bidders details as they asterixed out.
It's at that point where someone with a suspicious mind might ponder about an 'inside job'. To say I'm cross is an understatement and not a little embarrassed as I'm supposed to be internet-savvy!
Oh dear. Now I'll find out how good my bank's fraud detection department is, as they try to track down the payment made to a bank in Prague, which is where ebay's trust account is supposed to be held-
Others be warned - use Paypal or take cash (I was bidding on a boat) to the buyer - Ebay are washing their hands on this one as the transaction was outside their system - but the scammer's 2nd chance offer and subsequent Order confirmation details seemed genuine.

A search for the account number led here:

http://help.elance.com/entries/34309-Ho ... e-Account-

To add funds to your account, follow the steps below:

Contact your bank for specific information about arranging an ACH transfer from your bank directly to Elance's bank.

Make the transfer payable to Elance, and include your username and Elance Account Number in the reference area. Your Elance Account Number is displayed at the top of your Account Activity page beginning with the letters 'EL' and followed by a string of numbers.

Send your ACH transfer by providing your bank with the following information:



Beneficiary/Recipient Name: Elance
Recipient Address:

Elance
441 Logue Ave., Suite 150
Mountain View, CA 94043

To: US Bank
980 9th Street
Sacramento, CA 95814

ABA number (U.S. only): 121122676

Account number: 1534-9534-6352

Amount: (Enter transfer amount.)

Reference Area: (Enter your Elance username and Account Number)

Even if my account had been compromised I would not have this information

http://pages.ebay.com/help/sell/second_ ... html#quick

No, you don't have info on the bidders, but Ebay does. Somebody with access to your account can send offers.

Sending an offer

To send a Second Chance Offer:
Go to My eBay. You may be asked to sign in.
Click the Sold or Unsold link.
Find the item.
From the Actions drop-down menu next to the item, select Second Chance Offer.
Click the Continue button.
Select the quantity of items you have to sell, the duration of the offer, and the bidders you want to send offers to.
Click the Continue button.
The number of offers you can send depends on the quantity of duplicate items you selected to offer. For example, if you have 4 duplicate items, you can send offers to up to 4 bidders.

You'll receive a copy of the offer email that's sent to bidders.

Could be the hacker can then delete those copies before you see them?

http://www.uksaabs.co.uk/UKS/viewtopic. ... 4&t=114902

I bid on the this car on ebay, then received a second chance email. To which I replied.

Just received these emails

:Just a quick update regarding the sale. I was browsing through ebay and found out they're offering a great 3rd party Protection Program for sellers to avoid time wasters and for buyers to receive 100% purchase protection. This are the steps we need to take: 1- seller will register the transaction with ebay Protection Program. 2- buyer will receive an invoice from ebay with payment guidelines. 3- buyer sends payment to ebay. 4- ebay holds the funds until buyer inspects the item(3 days inspection period from the moment the buyer receives or collects the item). 5- after inspection is over buyer asks ebay to release the funds to the seller or if not satisfied he asks for a refund(refunds are processed within 1 business day).
I think this is the best solution for us and from past experience I will move forward only through ebay following the above steps.
Let me know if you agree with this and I will proceed with the arrangements through ebay for our transaction.

Andy.


On Mon, Apr 29, 2013 at 8:39 PM, Andy House <[email protected]> wrote:
Hi Finally managed to get to a laptop where I can check my inbox, hope it hasn't been long since you emailed. Long story short the winner after speaking on the phone waiting for him all day long comes up and wants a straight swap. If that wasn't enough the bugger almost made us lose our flight.
My wife and I celebrate 15 years of marriage, ended up in Isle of Skye, Scotland. Where do you live? Asking since next week we'll be visiting some relatives so we can meet and deal face to face.
Send me a contact number so I can call you when I get the chance.

P.S. My phone says no network coverage but I do check emails regularly.

I take it is a scam?

Just to warn other bidders if it is.

Thanks John

Setting aside how the person got hold of contact details, the point is that buyers are ignoring the basic ebay acceptable payment policy

http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/accepted-payments-policy.html

Among the restricted payment methods is "Bank-to-bank transfers (also known as bank wire transfers and bank cash transfers)".

Though I know very little about ebay without too much thought I can think of various methods of getting contact information, but the basic point is that the moment you go outside the stipulated payment methods you are taking a risk and losing the protection of ebay.

The thought of losing out on a bargain might be tempting but, if to get it you have to lose ebay protection, that's warning that you're being tempted in to a trap.

Forgive me being blunt, but the easiest way to harvest 'suckers' would be to hold a 'mock' auction where the seller himself places the winning bid and then he harvests the losers with 'second chance' offers. It wouldn't be difficult to work out other methods but the point being that if you allow yourself to be drawn outside the ebay system you have no protection.

The scammer is abusing the second chance system to lure people into lowering their guard, and it appears to be working.

Forgive me being blunt, but the easiest way to harvest 'suckers' would be to hold a 'mock' auction where the seller himself places the winning bid and then he harvests the losers with 'second chance' offers. .

You're not getting it, its not like the old second chance offer scams of years back sent via ebay. Ebay stopped that by hiding bidder ids some years back.

These second chance offers are being sent by Email. Even if the seller's account was accessed there is no way to see the email address of all bidders nor their name, nor postal / home address (this is only shown to the seller if they win their auction).

Only the Ebay ID of the bidders and their bid amount can be seen by the seller if they dont win an auction.

The only people who know all of these details:

Ebay ID
Email address
Name
Postal Address
Bid Amount
Item bid on

Is... the bidder and.... EBAY!

So it's either an inside job or someone is hacking Ebay and very frequently too as of late.

The scammer is always asking for payment to bank accounts owned by Elance and always puts the beneficiary as "Ebay, Inc) so the buyer thinks he is paying to ebay!

The seller said that his account is not compromised and he knows other sellers who have this problem. So using the seller's account to send out fake offers doesn't apply. How do they get such specific info about a bidder? I got one of these fake offers after bidding on a much wanted car. Not in my Ebay messages. There is no way MY account is hacked. And it's not the seller. So then what?

RedButte

Inside job from Ebay or not, this has to be the most sophisticated online scam in years. The internet is full of information on the old style scams, but noone is onto this yet.

Elance who own the bank account have done absolutely nothing! As for ebay, usual canned replies and the scam goes on.

And again today another bidder who has never bought from me but recently bid got a second chance offer email somehow.

That's over one month since reported to Ebay, Elance and US Bank and the same email is being used: [email protected] with the same bank account which belongs to Elance.


To: US Bank
980 9th Street
Sacramento, CA 95814

ABA number (U.S. only): 121122676

Account number: 1534-9534-6352

If Ebay wont do anything then why do Elance allow scammers to keep using their bank accounts over one month since sevral reports. Surely this makes Elance accomplice in the fraud?

US Bank - totally useless, like they dont care scam funds are transiting their bank.

Who can I report this to now?

This is a tough one. There definitely appears to be some kind of security breach here.

First of all, I would try to encourage EVERY person who has received a fake 2nd chance offer to file a report with eBay and perhaps with IC3, so the depth of the issue becomes more clear.

Maybe copy the IC3 report, and forward that the the companies involved that do not seem to be taking action?
You could also report companies that are not responding to the local BBB, as then they will at least be more likely to take notice.

Just a quick update on the outcome of my scam
Ebay were extremely dismissive (even though I believe my account details were compromised possibly by someone in ebay - even that didn't prod them into action)
the Police were not particularly interested - I guess the amount - £2,500 - was on the small side for them and they pointed me to the Online Fraud team at http://www.actionfraud.police.uk/ who don't seem to be the Police at all - just a call centre.
On the other hand, my bank were BRILLIANT - recovered all the funds bar a couple of hundred quid in agents' fees and currency fluctuations - Well done SMILE.
It looks as if the email address [email protected] is still active. Wouldn't you just love to email bomb him and disable the account? If only I knew how to do that.......

I'm sure that your bank would welcome you naming and applauding them for their help philovey. I am very critical of UK banks so it's only fair to encourage people to point out those that have been of particular help, as consumers can reward and punish service providers in the way that affects them most, and pointing out the 'good guys' is part of that process.

I understand that they may not be able to help everyone in the same way, but at least knowing you can have contact with a bank capable of more than just shrugging their shoulders would be useful for others to know. For all I know it could be a bank for which I have a particular dislike, but that's not the point. You can't argue with consumer opinion.