I got an email that claimed to be from eBay saying that I needed "TO VERIFY YOUR EBAY ACCOUNT REGISTRATION INFORMATIONS". The email included a warning "If we do not receive the appropriate eBay account verification within 48 hours, then we will assume this eBay account is fraudulent and will be suspended."
Funny, thing is the URL it sends me to is http://211.202.3.208/. (See Whois.) This IP location is in Greece and the site is registered to someone in Korea...not to eBay.
I did not share my "informations" and forwarded the email to spoof@ebay.com instead.
Update: eBay replied to my email. (The reply email is in the extended entry.) They confirmed my belief that the email was not sent by them and said that they have "reported this email to the appropriate authorities." Then they went on to warn me against giving out sensitive information requested by email. No kidding. I really didn't doubt that the email was fake, I forwarded it to let them know about this attempt to get user information.
Hello,
Thank you for writing to eBay regarding the email you received.
Emails such as this, commonly referred to as "spoof" or "phished"
messages, are sent in an attempt to collect sensitive personal or
financial information from the recipients.
The email you reported was not sent by eBay. We have reported this email
to the appropriate authorities.
In the future, be very cautious of any email that asks you to submit
information such as your credit card number or your email password. eBay
will never ask you for sensitive personal information such as passwords,
bank account or credit card numbers, Personal Identification Numbers
(PINs), or Social Security Numbers in an email. If you ever need to
provide sensitive information to us, please open a new Web browser, type
www.ebay.com into your browser address field, and click on the "site
map" link located at the top the page to access the eBay page you need.
If you have any doubt about whether an email message is from eBay,
please forward it immediately to spoof@ebay.com. Do not respond to it or
click any of the links. Do not remove the original subject line or
change the email in any way when you forward it to us.
If you have already entered sensitive financial information or your
password into a Web site based on a request from a spoofed email, you
should take immediate action to protect your identity and all of your
online accounts. We have developed an eBay Help page with valuable
information regarding the steps you should take to protect yourself.
http://pages.ebay.com/help/confidence/isgw-account-theft-reporting.html
To review eBay's new tutorial about Spoof Emails, please see the
following Web page:
http://pages.ebay.com/education/spooftutorial/
Once again, thank you for alerting us to the spoof email you received.
Your efforts help us ensure that eBay remains a safe and vibrant online
marketplace.
Regards,
Ian
eBay SafeHarbor
Investigations Team
______________________________
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
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