Some help avoiding getting caught by spoof eMails
There are a growing number of spoof eMails doing the rounds at the moment
seeking to get people to disclose log in details, passwords, credit card numbers,
and other personal details.
These eMails are targeting users of Online Banking Services, Building Societies, Auction Sites
and Online Payment Services like PayPal, NoChex etc.
I am going to focus on eBay, but what follows is also relevant to the other people being targeted
by these eMails.
The eMails are written as if look like they come from the correct place, eBay, will have a genuine looking
senders eMail address and will give some plausible
reason for wanting you to enter the requested information.
This is a spoof e-mail which I recently received
You will notice that the url looks valid, but the whole text above is actually an image file and the
link actually took
the unsuspecting recipient to a completely different web site.
Some of the reasons given for updating your information include
- Suspicious activity detected on your account.
- Unusual Log-In activity detected.
- A need to verify your details.
The reasons will often be backed up by extracts claiming to be from the user agreement, like this for instance
Per the User Agreement, Section 9, we may immediately issue a warning,
temporarily suspend, indefinitely suspend or terminate your membership
and refuse to provide our services to you if we believe that your
actions may cause financial loss or legal liability for you, our users or
us. We may also take these actions if we are unable to verify or
authenticate any information you provide to us.
Due to the suspension of this account, please be advised you are
prohibited from using eBay in any way. This includes the registering of a
new
account.
If You should actually click the link in a spoof eMail, don't be surprised if the web page you end up
visiting looks genuine.
This is not a screen dump! (try the links)
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It took me more time to disable this form so that it did not work, then it took to copy!
A Key thing to look for is the url of the site you have ended up on, it will have a URL which is not
like the normal eBay ones, which for those of us using eBay UK are
http://www.ebay.co.uk/...
http://cgi3.ebay.co.uk/...
https://scgi.ebay.co.uk/...
http://pages.ebay.co.uk/...
It is worth remembering this........
"eBay will not request personal data (password, credit card/bank numbers,
and so on) in an e-mail. Learn how to protect your account at
http://pages.ebay.co.uk/help/account_protection.html?ssPageName=ADME:X:LC:UK:14
"
....which was copied from a listing confirmation eMail from eBay, you will find the same
message in every other official e-mail from eBay and a similar message in every e-mail
from PayPal.
(The eBay article in the link above includes a full list of valid eBay URL's for all eBay sites worldwide.)
If you receive an eMail and are not sure if it is genuine, rather then follow the link provided,
it would be better to visit the actual site in question, using your normal favourite etc and attempt
to log into the site, if there is a problem with your account they are unlikely to let you
log in and use the site normally.
If you receive a spoof e-mail it should be forwarded to
For eBay - spoof@ebay.com
For PayPal - spoof@paypal.com
Remember the people who send out these eMails are not doing it for a joke, they are usually after your
hard earned cash or are going to use you account to defraud someone else. But they are not
infallible, it is worth noting that spoof eMails often contain spelling or grammatical errors.
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Your Comments / Thoughts / Additions / Corrections etc 
