New eBay Scam???

[jtryka]

Well, eBay has always been a fertile field for scam artists, despite the efforts of the company, and we've all seen various e-mail scams involving them, but today I think I received a new one. I have been looking for an upgrade for my 1914 $20 FRN, and have bid on a few, and today I received an e-mail reprinted as follows:

 

Dear jtryka,

You expressed interest on an item. I'm the owner of that item on which you've recently bided on through the eBay system... Item title: *** 1914 $20 Fed Reserve Note XF NO RESERVE -- Item number: (deleted to protect the innocent)*** and I've contacted you because I need to know if you are still interested to buy it... Email me as soon as posible with your answer because I must to know if is necesarly to find another buyer or if you can buy the item....If you accept this offer the eBay policy automatically proclaims you winner.Please include in your answer ,your best price that you can offer for the item.The transaction will go strictly according to eBay's RULES and POLICY and will be supervised by eBay Trust & Safety Department. If you are interested just contact me, (deleted)@aol.com is my email...

 

So, I went to my eBay to check on the auction, and it was still going on with a day left! I e-mailed the seller to see if they actually sent this message since it would be odd to send such a message with the auction ongoing. To me, this seems like an effort to just get some unsuspecting bidders to pay money for nothing thinking it was like a second chance offer. Still haven't heard back from the seller, but it might be something that they had no idea was going on, and I still don't know how this person even got my e-mail address since I thought eBay no longer allowed that?

 

 

I am waiting a fast response!

[123cents]

Thanks for the heads up Jeff. Keep us informed.

[jtryka]

I forwarded it to eBay and they replied that it was a fraud attempt.

[conqueror]

Thank you for sharing this info. there are just too many of them out there.

[Shortgapbob-migration]

Thanks for the info. That sounds like a new version of an ebay scam to me.

[jtryka]

Got a response from the real seller and they said they did not send it, so it's a confirmed scam. Kinda scary to think that as an innocent seller on eBay someone can be using your listings to attempt to scam people!

[ant]

the way it sounded he/she wanted u to go outside of the auction.

 

anytime i get something like this i use a seperate email to try to contact them back. to let them know "thank you i have visited the auction numbered and already did my bidding" its a small chance to get back to them but its still fun making them think they have just gotin this other person a sale

[jtryka]

Just got another one today from an item I bid on, but this one looked EXACTLY like the eBay second chance item form. So I forwarded it to eBay safeharbor, and their response was not exactly conclusive either way. The second chance offer even appeared on the "My eBay" page and so I decided to ask the seller if it was the same item, and the seller just responded that it was a scam. It's really getting so that I am afraid to buy or bid on anything anymore!