eBay

brettjet38 · ‎12-13-2020

Hi ALL

So this is a heads-up!!!!

Before anyone replies to me, PLEASE READ THE WHOLE THING...

I knew it was a scam as soon as I saw it, but many people will not.

So this morning I had a "Best Offer" from a member in Singapore, who used the eBay UK site to send me a best offer here in Montreal.

The scam goes like this...

You get an offer, in my case, it was the full asking price (BELL ONE).

And the Buyer includes a message in my case it was this one, but I am sure the theme and grammar will vary

"Hi my friend. I try to pay through PayPal and same with the Bank account it says that the seller does not accept the payment method for now and sends me this article:
https:// offer.ebay.co.uk.check-sales.ga/? =&trksid=p3692IwAR0lB6Y422LMO0000h"

Now, I scanned that link and it took me to a very well done FAKE eBay.co.uk site (front door)

The hope/intent of the scam is that you will "cut & paste" the link thinking it is an eBay site and then you will log in via that link.

Evidently, I made a few calls to eBay this AM and even they were surprised by this one.

SO very simply

DO NOT REPLY TO ANY MESSAGES IN A "BEST OFFER" WITH A LINK TO AN "ARTICLE" or any other site.

So, these people or persons are actually using the eBay platform and different eBay sites in different countries to make "Best Offers" to SELLERS in the hopes that they will follow that link, and hand over their "credentials" because the "buyer" cannot seem to pay?!

In this case, the "Buyer" is in Singapore, using eBay.co.uk to send scam messages/offers to in my case Sellers in Canada, think about that...

I have been told by the eBay rep I spoke to this AM, that a general announcement should be made to warn eBay members about LINKS in Best Offers.

SO here is mine

DO NOT RESPOND TO ANY BEST OFFERS WITH A

"I CANNOT PAY MESSAGE OR ANY LINKS ATTACHED"

brettjet38 · ‎12-27-2020

Have just been doing some reading, it seems like there is a big increase in scams originating from Singapore this past year especially in e-commerce, gangs seem to like using eBay hence this new Best Offer scam.

marnotom! · ‎12-27-2020

I'm not saying that these phishers aren't hailing from Singapore, but I am saying that there's no evidence online that ties them to that country. If your "Singaporean" phishers were registered in India instead of Singapore, I bet you could find all sorts of online articles about online fraud originating in India as "proof" that that's where they actually hailed from.

Singapore is a island city-state with a population about that of the GTA in a space about the size of New York City. While some people are a special kind of stupid, I think anyone attempting a phishing expedition would try to hide their tracks as best as possible, hence the use of a location other than their own.

The Straits Times article to which you linked is probably the best-researched and thus most legitimate of the bunch, and even that doesn't mention phishing expeditions.

I didn't come up with much when I did an online search for "organized crime in Singapore." This Japan Times article an interesting read, though. Unlike the blog post you found, this one is fairly recent:

https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2020/05/26/asia-pacific/crime-legal-asia-pacific/mr-big-singapore-...

tyler@ebay · ‎12-28-2020

@motomike_canada wrote:

so we can't discuss obvious scams but eBay will not do anything about them.

GOTCHA

care to chime in tyler@ebay ??

Hi @motomike_canada (and @brettjet38 who tagged me about something similar):

We do not allow our forums to be used as a place to 'name and shame' members - if your posts contained the user id of another member it should have been edited and removed. This guideline applies regardless of whether or not you feel a member is trying to take advantage of you.

We also do not allow the discussion of moderation action, which is why other posts may have been moderated or removed. In any case, if a post was edited or removed, you should receive a private message from a moderation teammate detailing why.

You can read more about our Guidelines here. Thanks!

Tyler,

motomike_canada · ‎12-31-2020

tyler@ebay wrote:
@motomike_canada wrote:
so we can't discuss obvious scams but eBay will not do anything about them.

GOTCHA

care to chime in tyler@ebay ??
Hi @motomike_canada (and @brettjet38 who tagged me about something similar):

We do not allow our forums to be used as a place to 'name and shame' members - if your posts contained the user id of another member it should have been edited and removed. This guideline applies regardless of whether or not you feel a member is trying to take advantage of you.

We also do not allow the discussion of moderation action, which is why other posts may have been moderated or removed. In any case, if a post was edited or removed, you should receive a private message from a moderation teammate detailing why.

You can read more about our Guidelines here. Thanks!

I understand the policy

There must be a misunderstanding about the context.

There is no intent to "name and shame" , these are not honest members, and it is not intended to disparage any real eBay members. It's not gossip, complaints, or otherwise "Shaming".

The intent is to WARN other members about a clear-cut phishing scam. They are obviously shell accounts, not honest ebay members. They are all sending best offers which contain links to a spoof site OUTSIDE of eBay -- this is also aginast a number eBay policies, and they are skirting the messaging system by using Best Offer to get their link to eBay sellers.

They are sending identical messages from multiple accounts.

Instead of looking into it, eBay seems keen on stifling conversation about it. If ACTUAL and HONEST eBay sellers could actually share information like this in order to ADD FAKE ACCOUNTS to their block lists, it would help everyone.

BLOCKING SELLERS FROM DISCUSSING ILLEGAL BEHAVIOUR AND PREVENTING MEMBERS FROM DISCUSSING MODERATION IS NOT HELPFUL.

motomike_canada · ‎12-31-2020

@marnotom! wrote:
I'm not saying BLAH BLAH BLAH

YOU are adding NOTHING to this by winging about Singapore.

Useless posts like this should be moderated.

grandmas-great-items · ‎12-31-2020

Domain they appear to be using is: check-sales (dot) ga

Whois search gives some info that "may" help shut down the domain if someone wants to use the abuse email to report the phishing scam.

A google search of Gabon TLD B.V. obtained from the whois search seems to bring up other phishing info but I did not click any of the results because I don't want to go into any websites I don't know.

reallynicestamps · ‎12-31-2020

So we are back with Nigerian princes -- scamming since before the internet existed.

motomike_canada · ‎12-31-2020

@marnotom! wrote:
Or we could call it a “Best Offer Phishing Expedition” which would make its intentions immediately clearer to those not familiar with it.

After all, Singaporeans aren’t being scammed here, we hope.

or we could quit splitting hairs about what to call it after it's already been named, and muddling up the discussion with useless chatter.

marnotom! · ‎12-31-2020

@motomike_canada wrote:
YOU are adding NOTHING to this by winging about Singapore.

And nothing is being added to this by framing this as a "Singapore problem".

People seem to have forgotten that when it first became a "thing," COVID-19 was referred to as the "Wuhan virus" or the "China virus". Most of us soon realized that referring to it as such was xenophobic and obscured the global nature of the pandemic. It's the virus that's the issue, not where it's believed to have originated.

With this phishing expedition, it's how it works and how to avoid being taken that's more important than where it may or may not originate. We need to be wary of scams no matter where the member's shipping address may be. Applying a specific geographical region to it confuses what one is supposed to be looking out for.

That's my point in fewer words than my previous post. You're welcome.

motomike_canada · ‎01-01-2021

Still too many words. The appropriate number of words for your "argument" is zero. and yet it's taking up 30% of the thread and adding nothing.

marnotom! · ‎01-01-2021

It’s irrelevant to the topic to wish you a happy new year but I’ll do so anyway.

kh-leslie · ‎01-02-2021

Hi everyone,

This thread is getting a bit heated. Please remember that, while it is fine to disagree with others, discussion should always remain courteous and respectful.

Thank you for your cooperation.

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rm-shop8 · ‎04-05-2021

Hello, I am receiving the same type offers at liest a couple a day, for the past 3-4 days already.

I notified ebay about this, but it seems that they are not actually that interested to warn sellers about the scam. They could at least send everyone a warning message, but by the time they will do it, a lot of accounts will get stolen probably.

Oh I just noticed the date when this was posted, so this scam is around at least 4 months.