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Sneaky Sneaky
by acdickson

AC has been getting a number of very official emails lately from member@eBay.com. It looks legit, the graphics are right and it mirrors the email you get from eBay on behalf of a member asking you a question or hoping you'll leave feedback. But this is internet hoax on steroids. Follow along and learn from AC's (very rare) folly.

The text of the latest communique was as follows.

Paid for this laptop and nothing happend. I'm still waiting to get it. Let me know asap what's the status of our transaction or i'll have to report you to eBay.

To view the item, go to: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/ebayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=6793158957

Kind Regards,
Dave.

Naturally, I haven't sold a laptop, much less to a user named " j-auction". But if you click on the link that in theory will take you to the item in question (note the cgi in front the ebay.com), you first have to sign into your account. Standard protocol. This sign in page looks exactly like the official sign in page to eBay, but the domain begins minhostservices.com/. However, one might not be looking so close when one is suddenly worried that a thousand dollar sale is being held accountable to one's sacred PowerSeller account.

Upon reflection, I believe this was the ruse used to hacked into my account. If memory serves, the very first one of these I got caused me to think there had been some grave misunderstanding. (I can now see the humor in the item in question being a John Deere Tractor I had apparently sold). Eager to clear it up, I hit the link, signed in and was pleased to see the fake auction (that I didn't at the time realize was fake) was for a non-farm machinery item that I hadn't sold and was in fact not even purchased. I closed the window without giving it another thought. Little did I know that user name and closely guarded password were now in the hands of the enemy.

They got me. Riddle solved. I can only imagine what they did with my eBay user name and password. eBay won't tell me, remember?

I have to give these bandits credit, their techniques are evolving faster than my skeptical eyes can process. But fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice and I'll track you down and eat your unborn children. Or at least type mean things into your fake eBay sign in pages.

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Comments

That is a good ruse! Damn.

Posted by: Mikey at August 26, 2005 9:00 PM

It's so intense! It's not like, another spam email for cialis, it's an actual honest-to-god attempt to hack into your life and steal money.

Luckily, we've got these guys to help us out:
http://www.cybercrime.gov/
Cyber-law-enforcement!

Posted by: Josh at August 26, 2005 9:20 PM

The ebay posers have hit me twice with very convincing ebay clone sites. If they hadn't asked me for my credit card number and security code so brazenly, I might have fallen for their ruse.

AC, perhaps disclosing something about your current Powerseller status would provide some insight into the inner sanctum of powerselling.

Posted by: neal at August 29, 2005 2:21 AM