eBay

coxengines · ‎12-31-2009

We received an email originating from:

DL-eBay-IT-IMD-BIA at ebaydotcom, no subject but with an attachment called"Advertiser Dashboard.pdf". There was no body in the mail.

The PDF seems as if it is associated with "Ad Commerce" and is labelled "eBay Inc. Confidential"

I would normally just call this spam but it looks as if it did come from an eBay server and, more importantly, I recognize the IDs of many of you posters on this board.

Instead of having sent the mail BCC, the sender included all the addresses in the "To" line and, again many of you guys are on the "To" list.

Anyone else got this mail and any idea what it is?

Bernie

fatdane · ‎12-31-2009

I reecived the email and promptly dumped it into my trash file. I don't open attachments without having a darn good idea of who they are coming from and I have no idea of who was sending this one. I recognized a lot of familiar eBay "names" in the address line. IT's probaby some one promoting a get rich quick on eBay scheme, or a sneaky new way to try advertise Viagara - in any case some one else can be the first one to open it.

pierrelebel · ‎12-31-2009

Same here. Used the "delete" button created for that very purpose!

pjcdn2005 · ‎12-31-2009

I received it as well and deleted it without opening it.

coxengines · ‎12-31-2009

Nah, I opened it. We receive lots of PDF's from customers through our other store and can't afford to delete attachments without looking at them.

This one is likely legit but I am sure it was not intended to be broadcast to everyone.

For instance, I get the keyword stats from a powerseller (looked him up and he is a major computer seller):

Months Impressions Clicks Total Cost (Pymt) Bids Purchases Sales Amount (Pymt) Sales/Cost (Pymt)

2009M10 877,826 4,955 168.29 437 16 3,914.68 23.26

2009M11 768,164 5,262 177.92 233 6 1,806.00 10.15

2009M12 415,708 3,092 98.12 264 3 825.50 8.41

These are 3 months stats and what intrigues me is the tracking of bids and actual sales.

Is this some new system eBay is experimenting with? This is what it states:

PPE Advertiser Dashboard For ID -450570 (Id I have abbreviated to mask identity).

Please realize that I am not naive when it come to spam, etc. I set up networks and am quite versed in server and network security.

Bernie

canadaspatchking · ‎12-31-2009

What eBay's Adcommerce has always lacked, when compared to Google Adwords, is a conversion percentage rate to sales from a Cost-per-click. The fact it has taken them this long to come up with something that is tracking sales on their own site is somewhat par for the course for an eBay release.

However, until Adcommerce comes up with some solid and credible numbers for conversions on clicks most big time CPC advertisers will not take it very seriously and will therefore not be spending as much as eBay would like on this form of advertising.

pierrelebel · ‎12-31-2009

"will ... not be spending as much as eBay would like on this form of advertising."

I found AdCommerce to offer me the best value for my advertising dollar. Much better than advertising in trade catalogues or magazines.

Clicks are up, sales are up. The cost of advertising is a small fraction of the sales increase. That is all I need to know. I will resume my advertisements (on .com, .ca, .uk, .au) with AdCommerce once I re-open my eBay store after the Holidays.

cottonwoodindustries · ‎01-01-2010

I just spoofed it to ebay and just waiting for the response

westernstargifts · ‎01-01-2010

I just spoofed it to ebay and just waiting for the response

Why didn't I think of that?

Got it, deleted it.

surplusdealdude · ‎01-01-2010

I got it and trashed it.

If ebay has something to say, they can send it through MyMessages.

Imagination will often carry us to worlds that never were. But without it we go nowhere. Carl Sagan

surplusdealdude · ‎01-01-2010

These are 3 months stats and what intrigues me is the tracking of bids and actual sales.

Is this some new system eBay is experimenting with? This is what it states:

PPE Advertiser Dashboard For ID -450570 (Id I have abbreviated to mask identity)

But ebay wouldn't send that type of email - it violates their privacy policy and privacy law, for that matter.

Might have been done by accident, might be some sort of keylogger rode along with it.

I'd run several spyware scans, just in case.

(And I'm still not going to open it)

Imagination will often carry us to worlds that never were. But without it we go nowhere. Carl Sagan

surplusdealdude · ‎01-01-2010

I'm going to post this on one of the main boards, too, just in case others are getting it.

Imagination will often carry us to worlds that never were. But without it we go nowhere. Carl Sagan

surplusdealdude · ‎01-01-2010

I sent a note to rodney at ebay asking him to investigate what's going on.

Imagination will often carry us to worlds that never were. But without it we go nowhere. Carl Sagan

coxengines · ‎01-01-2010

PDF's are fairly safe to open.

It was probably sent by accident.

I will contact the seller featured in the report and ask. A spammer would not have access to his info.

More importantly, I recognize a lot of powersellers on this board in the "To" line. If it is indeed spam it would be from someone lurking on this board as an outsider would be hard pressed to get all these addresses.

Bernie

dipmicro · ‎01-01-2010

I did not get such email, but it seems that only AdCommerce users are getting it.

If it is indeed spam it would be from someone lurking on this board as an outsider would be hard pressed to get all these addresses.

Board members do not have access to other members email address.

pierrelebel · ‎01-01-2010

There is nothing about the mystery message on the AdCommerce Discussion Board on eBay.com.

coxengines · ‎01-01-2010

I would venture a guess that eBay is working on a PPE (Pay Per event) or something like that and Adcommerce users may be invited to join and somehow the email went out before it should have.

Bernie

surplusdealdude · ‎01-01-2010

There was a short panic on the .com boards a couple of years ago when it looked like someone had hacked into ebay's servers and secured personal data for a lot of sellers.

We never did find out the whole story, just an "everything's OK, don't worry" spin from ebay.

I'm wondering if this is another hack.

Imagination will often carry us to worlds that never were. But without it we go nowhere. Carl Sagan

coxengines · ‎01-01-2010

Don't think so.

The PDF was of a nice "Dashboard" with stats. Actually looks pretty good.

There was no malicious code in there. Also, until present, it is not possible to have a virus contained within a PDF file. Well, actually there is but it would only affect someone opening the file with Adobe Writer, which only very few users have.

Bernie

surplusdealdude · ‎01-02-2010

I wasn't thinking of malicious code on this - I was thinking someone was bragging that he had hacked ebay's system again.

The guy that did this the last time claimed that he was just demonstrating how porous ebay's systems were.