Phony Ebay email SCAM ALERT

[Dom]

SCAM ALERT
These guys almost fooled me

Dear eBay User,

During our regular ID verification process, it has come to our attention that your eBay user ID is not currently complete. You must establish your proof of identity with ID Verify - an easy way to help others trust you as their trading partner. The process takes about 10 minutes to complete and involves updating your information over a secure connection. If you fail to verify your account information, your eBay user ID might be restricted or suspended.

Please update and verify your information by signing in your account below :
http://pages.ebay.com/services/buyandsell/idverify-login.html

Thank you,
Accounts Management"

If you followed the link from this email change your ebay password before it is too late!!!  

and here is just www.cico.se  DEFINITELY A SCAM!!!

[Lars]

Thanks for notifying!!  You really can't see the difference    

[JeffD]

If anyone doesn't know.

Whatever kind of email you get from a "company" always type in the address YOURSELF!  do not click on a link.  There are many people that setup identical pages to the real ones but just have your information stored into their database and steal your stuff.  See how the link says  pages.ebay.com//  its a redirect to another website not even close to ebay.

careful.  

[chbix]

Ok....... Then how come it recognized me?  I mean i was already logged into ebay and that link actually showed me as logged in....  I dont know, anyway ive already changed the password, but your right, never use the links that are given in an email.

[geekonabike]

This kind of email is virtually always a scam.  Still it's nice to verify quickly that it is, so you don't have to worry about what happens if you don't follow their instructions.

One way you can often tell it's a scam is that the link showing in the text of the email may be from the legitimate company, but when you put your curser on it (at least in Mozilla) the toolbar at the bottom of the browser shows you where you are actually being directed, which is usually quite different.  (A real company would likely not do that.)  Or you can open the link in a new window and see if you are actually on a company site or something else, but that might be more risky.  Often the link is just to an IP address, like
http://164.58.59.82 (just an example, in this case the university I work for) rather than something.ebay.com for instance.  (Make sure the actual company name comes right before the .com.)  If the actual company has a "report scam emails" address I usually send it along to them, but I doubt anyone gets caught.  Usually when I look up the scam site it's in Hong Kong or something.  But anyhow it is somewhat satisfying to note the link discrepancy and therefore know for sure it's a scam.

If you really thought you had to update your EBay information you could delete the email and go to their website and do it.  If it's a bank or credit card, you can call them instead, with a well-publicized phone number (from the phone book) or from the back of your card.

FWIW,
Mike D.

[geekonabike]

Ok....... Then how come it recognized me?  I mean i was already logged into ebay and that link actually showed me as logged in....  I dont know, anyway ive already changed the password, but your right, never use the links that are given in an email.

Even if you were not logged into EBay, following their link--they'd want you to think--would log you on, just not to EBay but to their phony site.  That's my theory.

Have a look at my previous post, and if you still have it, the actual email you got and the link contained therein.  They can use some of the simplest html code to have a link to their site show up as anything, from "Click Here to log in," or a bogus site address which is not the actual site they send you to.  See what happens when you click this: http://www.playboy.com

See what I mean?  I sent you back to gstwin.com, though the text says that other web site that you shouldn't be visiting anyways.

--Mike D.

[Rippa_MD]

one time I got an email from "ebay" I filled in
First Name: F!%$k
Last Name: You

sans the censoring, I still do it sometimes but not so much.
on every blank I put it a nice expletive. their database will never be the same. haha bastards :nana:

[geekonabike]

LOL.  And I bet they said you were "logged in."  

[Bob Broussard]

I just got an email (from ebay ) that told me someone was trying to access my credit card or bank info. Very realistic looking. It didn't say anything about logging in or updating my info. But it did have a link attached.
I reported it to ebay (the real one) and they told me it WAS a scam.