Spoof eBay Second Chance Offer Emails

[gmarguli]

This was a first for me. I've gotten lots of the usual eBay/PayPal spoofs trying to get my password or credit card info, but this one is a spoof "Second Chance Offer". It raised my hopes for a split second as I'd LOVE to own that coin and was so disappointed when I was outbid.

 

The rocket scientist sending the Second Chance Offer to me must not have thought too much since I was the THIRD highest bidder and not the second highest bidder. According to the real seller, I wasn't the only one getting this email.

 

 

Date: Mon, 2 Aug 2004 17:34:11 -0700 (PDT)

From: KARL ROBERTSON (karlrobertson@zipido.com)

Subject: Second Chance Offer Item #3920713544

 

You expressed interest in an item titled "Rare Swiss 1720 Beromuenster 1/2 Thaler-N/R!" Item number: 3920713544, by bidding, however the auction has ended

with another member as the high bidder.

 

In compliance with eBay policy, the seller is making this Second Chance Offer to you at your bid price of US $1,421.89

 

The seller has issued this Second Chance Offer because either the winning bidder was unable to complete the transaction or the seller has duplicate items

for sale. If you accept this offer, you will be able to exchange Feedback with the seller and will be eligible for eBay services associated with a transaction, such as fraud protection.

 

This offer expires Thursday, Aug 05, 2004 19:01:36 PST.

 

To see this item, click on the following page: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3920713544

 

To learn more about Second Chance Offer go to: http://pages.ebay.com/help/sell/personal_offer.html

 

Thank you, eBay, Inc.

_____________________________________________________________

Sign up for FREE email from zipido.com at http://zipido.com and get your own

Free Website.

[kryptonitecomics]

They are getting trickier by the minute. I now ignore all Ebay and Paypal e-mails since 100% of them are bogus. I even had my ID stolen on Ebay for a day, but fortunately I am Ebay daily so when I couldn't get into my accout I did a seller search with my user ID.

 

 

I didn't even know I had 10 Plasm screen TV's and about 20 High End Home computers to sell........go figure

[Hoot]

So Greg, if you had been the second highest bidder, how would you have known this was a scam?

 

Hoot

[gmarguli]

So Greg, if you had been the second highest bidder, how would you have known this was a scam?

 

Quite a few mistakes, if you knew what to look for.

 

1) The email address of the sender did not match the email address of the seller.

 

2) The name of the sender doesn't match the name of the seller.

 

3) The email was not sent thru the eBay system.

 

4) The email had a sign off of "Thank you, eBay, Inc." All the second chance offers I have seen sign the seller user ID.

 

5) FREE email from zipido.com as the sig was odd.

 

6) No link to the eBay web site to an active item. When a second chance offer is sent the item appears on the web site as active. That's how eBay makes money.

 

7) The offer expire time was wrong. You can choose the amount of time to allow the second chance offer to be active. 2 days, 1 hour, 27 minutes, & 25 seconds is not one of the choices.

[Hoot]

Thanks for being explicit!

 

Hoot