EBay ripoff fraud failure to honor guarantee eBay Ignoring Fraud very low opinion of eBay and its subsidiary Paypal Santa Clara California

OR log into Ebay physically (ie you open your browser and type in Ebay.com ) and see if messages are in your My Ebay INbox. If it was sent via Ebay, it will show up there.

And learn to read headers. Just because th' from field" says its from someone at ebay.com doesn't necessarily mean its from there.

There are tutorials on how to read headers all over the net, and how to obtain them from your email message. I also suggest that if you get a suspicious email purporting to come from ebay, then run the message throug a service like Spamcop.net , and it will break down the message and tell you where it came from.

But, that statement about a seller having a public email address is wrong. 90% of the world has yahoo, hotmail, etc. Because it's FREE. Many people do not know or care about setting up their email accounts within the domain they get their service from. I have always used yahoo for my mail. That way I can get my email no matter where I am. Doesn't mean I am a crook!

Also, even the scam mails can end with Ebay.com. I've seen it.

as a new ebay seller - I'd like to relate a similar situation that happened to one of my ebay bidders.

A very lovely lady called me at home 2 days after the auction closed saying, "she had received an "Second Chance" offer on a used laptop I had up for auction. The reason for her call is that the offer was from another ebay registered user and NOT from me.

We also, discussed the possiblilty that her personal information may have been accessed and how to protect her from what was obviously FRAUD. I suggested as some additional preventive measures that she could take 1. change her ebay password,
2. notify ebay security, 3. cancel her credit card and have a new one issued by her bank

I filed a report with ebay with the information this potential customer had given me. I also, sent a email message to the registered ebay user who by the way had his account hijacked. This is how the customer received the second chance bid.

Luckily, no money had been transferred to the SCAM artist so it was a matter of inconveinence for my customer rather than a Painful Loss.

To Prevent this from EVER happening in the future:
1. 2nd chance offers will NEVER be sent by a registered user who is NOT ALSO the user holding the auction
2. NEVER PAY anyone with cash or by bank transfer
3. ALWAYS use a form of payment that allows you to get your money back if you are not satisfied
4. ALWAYS verify that ebay itself actually sent you the email ( the address will always END WITH ebay.com )
5. NEVER respond to a seller who uses a free email account PERIOD. hotmail, yahoo etc these email address are FREE and are not easily traceable
6. ALWAYS contact the registered seller via ebays internal mail system or through a verifiable email address [seller@aol.com, seller@sellerswebsite.net etc]
7. check out the SCAM page that ebay offers

I dont know about the ebay auto seller who was offering the auto for sale but my customer service [where all the information was available and verifyable concerning your LOSS] principles would suggest that I send you an email on how to NEVER let this happen again AND work with you to help you get another vehicle. Although this is NOT the responsibility of the seller. I feel it is just PLAIN good customer service.
Just a NOTE: as a seller I ONLY use PayPal and I only ship to addresses VERIFIED by PayPal in order to eliminate possible FRAUD.

While I sympathize with your client's situation, it appears that she isn't telling the entire story. The "confirm@eBay-info-pay.com" email is the tip off. This is not a valid email address, and eBay's fraud protection services advise never to respond to an email or use a site that does not **end** with ebay.com.; any extraneous characters will always be BEFORE ebay.com.

You need to examine the email headers of any correspondence your client received or sent to determine the actual sender/receiver.

Come on man... Common sense should tell this person that any payment made via Western Union is a scam.

And, she is not reporting the whole story here... I am sure that the email said something to the effect that she should NOT tell Western Union that this was an Ebay transaction, because of "tax issues". If she was unsure of the policies regarding this type of transaction, WHY DIDN'T SHE GO TO EBAY'S SITE AND READ UP ON THE SCAMS? It's in plain view... If she had taken the time to do this, she would've know she was being scammed. Plus, did she ever think to call Payless Auto to see if this was legit? Also, there are 3 different emails tied to the same car... that in itself should send up red flags all over the place!!!!

I little research on the net would've worked wonders in this situation. Do not fault Ebay entirely for this, there are thousands of scams running everyday involving auction sites, it's hard to keep up with all the emails and questions.

Come on man... Common sense should tell this person that any payment made via Western Union is a scam.

And, she is not reporting the whole story here... I am sure that the email said something to the effect that she should NOT tell Western Union that this was an Ebay transaction, because of "tax issues". If she was unsure of the policies regarding this type of transaction, WHY DIDN'T SHE GO TO EBAY'S SITE AND READ UP ON THE SCAMS? It's in plain view... If she had taken the time to do this, she would've know she was being scammed. Plus, did she ever think to call Payless Auto to see if this was legit? Also, there are 3 different emails tied to the same car... that in itself should send up red flags all over the place!!!!

I little research on the net would've worked wonders in this situation. Do not fault Ebay entirely for this, there are thousands of scams running everyday involving auction sites, it's hard to keep up with all the emails and questions.