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"

femmefan1946 · ‎12-25-2020

Open the UID and get your fees back.

Relist without waiting for the UID to close-- not usually a good idea but with this obvious scam shouldn't be a problem.

List as Fixed Price/Immediate Payment Required which stops the scam before it starts.

Having "enough" lost UIDs should trigger some sort of notice to eBay, you'd think.

motomike_canada · ‎12-25-2020

2 more attempts today for "singapore scam"

They've been reported to spoof@ebay.ca

motomike_canada · ‎12-26-2020

Last Edited 12-25-2020 11:26:09 PM by Moderator kh-leslie

motomike_canada · ‎12-26-2020

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

GOTCHA

care to chime in tyler@ebay ??

brettjet38 · ‎12-26-2020

Because the postcode, like the name on the account, the ship-to address, and the location, is ALL fake.

These "offers" are nothing more than "phishing scams" the Buyer will never pay, and eBay is not acting as they keep coming...

So from now on, I will accept every one of them crooked best offers that comes my way, then I will open an unpaid item request as none of them will pay, and I will record them all, then post them to my social media with all the details including the member id's, and then I will be calling the Office of the President, as I have done in the past and reporting said MODS (for their lack of common sense) and the BEST OFFER scams currently infecting the Best Offer system on eBay.

The eBay moderators on this board want to hide and remove (they did) the id's so you do not see them, why on earth would eBay protect CRIMINALS? the scams and the FKAE IDs they use??

Calling eBay CS directly was a waste of time, so now I will go to the President's office like I did when the NAZI stuff was for sale on eBay Canada a few years ago, let me tell you I got a call from a VP in very fast time...

tyler@ebay

brettjet38 · ‎12-26-2020

EXACTLY

time to report the MODERATORS to tyler@ebay

brettjet38 · ‎12-26-2020

we know all that!!

THAT IS NOT THE ISSUE...

brettjet38 · ‎12-26-2020

Do you see the issue??

tyler@ebay

brettjet38 · ‎12-26-2020

The best thing to do is accept the full price offer, relist right away, report the buyer for M2M communication scam, open a UPI get back fees, and repeat, and repeat for each offer...

tyler@ebay

femmefan1946 · ‎12-26-2020

You know how to deal with the problem on a one-off basis.

But more members read these Boards than post to them.

I believe that in addition to the useful work you are doing by drawing attention to these scams, that concrete advice to someone who got roped into the scam is also useful.

How often do we see despair from naive members who tried to correct a problem by phoning/messaging Customer Service?

More to the point, why doesn't Customer Service direct those complaints to the Resolution Centre?
I can see (barely) why the CS reps are not allowed to refer the customer to other companies (Paypal, credit cards) since eBay is not directly affiliated with either any more, but why they have a conversation without mentioning the actual system for getting a refund is beyond me.

marnotom! · ‎12-26-2020

@brettjet38 wrote:

Because the postcode, like the name on the account, the ship-to address, and the location, is ALL fake.

Then can we stop referring to this as the "Singapore Scam," because it's not helpful to those reading these boards for information. These scammers could be from anywhere and may start using a different country to hide behind. (As a matter of fact, I have a dim recollection of reading about this message being associated with a buyer claiming to be from a European country.)

I'm posting this because many, many years ago, before the Global Shipping Program and when eBay.com had an International Trading Discussion Board, I made a comment that jokingly included Liechtenstein and Vatican City as examples in a discussion about buyer exclusions. After that, I started noticing that those locations started popping up on many sellers' international shipping exclusion lists. There's no reason to exclude shipping to a country with a smaller population than Belleville, Ontario and an area less than 5% the size of Prince Edward Island, and certainly no business case to be made for excluding shipping to the Pope. All I can think is that people who didn't read my post terribly closely got the wrong end of the stick.

Yes, I know a few people in Singapore, but my hackles would be raised by the suggestion of any reputable country being the epicentre of some sort of nefarious eBay activity.

brettjet38 · ‎12-27-2020

"Then can we stop referring to this as the "Singapore Scam"

No, actually we will not, as thus far all the offers I have received are originating from/via Singapore, and as I am the OPer of this thread I will be the one who decides how I refer to my posts and my opinions. "#eBaySingapore Scam" coming soon to social media if needed...

...but thanks for your input.

marnotom! · ‎12-27-2020

@brettjet38 wrote:

No, actually we will not, as thus far all the offers I have received are originating from/via Singapore. . .

I think you mean that those sending those messages have registration information basing them in Singapore. You have no evidence that these offers actually originate from Singapore.

brettjet38 · ‎12-27-2020

Yes so far it appears as if there is a "hole" in the registration process on the eBay: Electronics, Cars, Fashion, Collectibles & More site that is allowing "new" members to make/send spam Best Offers, so yes the issue is the Singapore site, if it was elsewhere we would see other countries as their locations.

www.ebay.com.sg

And, then when the offer is made the "Phishing Scam" message takes you through the eBay.co.uk site but sends you off to "harvester" who gets your credentials if you actually log in using that link.

So far all these offers are full price, with the "Hi Friend, I cannot pay "malarkey" message enclosed.

So evidently the issue/source for these scams is the Asian eBay site itself.

I have seen 4 different User Id's being used so far in the Offers, but I am certain it is really 1000's as these are bots doing this...

The ebay sites are so out of coordination with each other with conflicting features and code, it was inevitable that scammers would find holes, hell we regular Sellers see them on a daily basis, and look how long it takes eBay to "rectify" them, some have been there for years already.

Errors, Broken Links, incorrect Data

#eBaySingapourScam

marnotom! · ‎12-27-2020

Maybe it’s too early on a Sunday morning for me, but I don’t follow at least the first half of your post.

Using this ID on the Canadian site, I was able to change my shipping address to one in Singapore (see post 17), but that might be because the ID is over a decade and a half old?

motomike_canada · ‎12-27-2020

@marnotom! wrote:
Maybe it’s too early on a Sunday morning for me, but I don’t follow at least the first half of your post.

Using this ID on the Canadian site, I was able to change my shipping address to one in Singapore (see post 17), but that might be because the ID is over a decade and a half old?

so what?

in EACH AND EVERY case the Phisher is purporting to be in Singapore, and their userID shows Singapore. Hence Singapore Scam.

Do you think the Nigerian Prince scam was sent from Nigeria?

Or the Spanish Flu originated in Spain?

No -- but it's how they're identified, because it's simpler than saying:

"the phishing scam what involves persons of unknown origins who generally purport to be in Singapore for the purposes of their scam, possibly to ligitimize their account, but may in actual fact be in the UK since the spoof link they try to direct sellers to is structured in such a way that it appears at first glance to be a .co.uk address, which it is not."

#thephishingscamwhatinvolvespersonsofunknownoriginswhogenerallypurporttobeinSingaporeforthepurposesof theirscam,possiblytolegitimizetheiraccountbutmayinactualfactbeintheUKsincethespooflinktheytrytodirectsellerstoisstructuredinsuchawaythatitappearsatfirstglancetobea.co.ukaddress,whichitisnot

brettjet38 · ‎12-27-2020

#eBaySingaporeScam

Let's call it what it is, a scam operated on eBay by nefarious individuals...

Brilliant response, mate, brilliant!

marnotom! · ‎12-27-2020

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.