Friday, May 05, 2006

Ebay Alert Scam

I got an email alert from Ebay today on Hotmail. Unfortunately I opened it and signed in without thinking. Then saw it was asking for credit card information, and MY ATM PIN numbers. I called the 800 listed on the email which did not work of course. I did not give out any info, but I did log on to whatever it was using my password so immediately changed my password on Ebay (I hope it was not too late). I hate these scams but Ebay states on their site they never send out these kinds of alerts. Too bad Ebay does not have a CONTACT EMAIL somewhere on their site easy to find! Maybe just an email alert when these emails start appearing in email. Anyway, have caution when looking at these emails. AND DO NOT EVER GIVE OUT YOUR PIN NUMBER ANY FORM OR FASHION. I have to remind myself of this all the time.

9 comments:

Tara's Art Camp said...

I make it a habbit to go to the mail portion in "my ebay" ,,, if the email is not there it is not ligitimate. It's an extra step, but it can save you a lot of grief.
I also get paypal security alerts right after I use my paypal account. Never sign in to those either. Go directly to the paypal site.

Anonymous said...

Kim, if you use that same password for anything else elsewhere (a Paypal, Yahoo, or Typepad account, etc.) you should also change it wherever you use it as a precaution. My best friend just got the same eBay scam mail, and signed in with her password like you did, and then she realized that this was all wrong and a trap.- just in time! But since her eBay password was the same as her AOL password, she hurried to change it- because since these people already had knew her e-mail address they could technically try her password out at AOL. People tend to use the same password for lots of things because it's easier to remember. Hope this helps you, and other people :o)

Kim Carney said...

Yes, I don't know what I was thinking, I just wasn't, but like your friend I realized what was going on immediately.
I did go change a couple of passwords, and I am trying to think of all the places I need to as well. How annoying!
That is was our scam writer here says, that most people use the same password for almost everything, and he says the minute you sign in with one, they are off to whatever info they have on you, trying out that password ;0

Anonymous said...

These scams are so annoying. And the scammers are getting so good at it everyday. In the past, there would be typos or something that would feel strange. Now the scams seem so genuine. They even have ebay or paypal domain email adresses. But now, most of the serious companies stopped including any links in their e-mails. As a principle, I suggest do not click on any links on any e-mail.
It is lucky you realized and acted so early.

Kim Carney said...

I usually never click on them. We get them all the time at work and I just delete them. I have been so preoccupied this week that I don't know what I was thinking when I entered my password! I feel like such an idiot ;) It is very very annoying, frustating.

Anonymous said...

I just realized, they actually have a typo: "Credit of the Debit Card on File to Confirm your Identity"...

Kim Carney said...

also on the mail, after I reread it, it said: Dear Member eBaY

Liquid Sky Arts said...

I got the exact same email today too... it's gotten to the point where I don't have a clue which emails are legitimate anymore... so everything goes in the trash. So many identity theft, scammers out there. It's so good you caught yourself before something horrible happened.

Anonymous said...

Same thing happened to one of my friends. Even though he is really careful, he did not pay attention at the time.

By the time he realized, he already typed his id and password. Later on that day he realized that someone listed a luxury motorcycle, using his account.