TulipTools Internet Business Owners and Online Sellers Community

Quote:When an eBay seller opened an email received through eBay's message system this week, it read, "If you need additional income, we have an open position as a mediator for selling items on ebay. To learn more, open www .tradeportal1.org and enter (Code removed by editor) on prompt." The purported shopper who sent the email to the seller using eBay's "Ask Seller a Question" feature had zero feedback and had registered on eBay the same day the email message was sent.

The recipient, a concerned eBay seller, reported the suspicious email to eBay when she received the email on March 14. A search for tradeportal1.org on a search engine came up with a post on an anti-scam forum from someone who said they had reported a similar email - also linking to the site TradePortal1.org - to eBay on March 9. A WhoIs search on the domain "tradeportal1.org" reveals it was registered on February 13, 2007, using a domain registration company that lets resellers register a .ORG domain for just 99 cents...

Quote: I'm hearing from users that the scammers are stepping up their attacks in an extremely devious way. The technique involves asking the seller a question about an "identical item" they saw listed on eBay, and includes a link to the supposed listing. Unwary sellers who go to view the item by clicking or pasting in the link are taken to a spoof site, where they are asked to sign in again (it is not unusual to have to log-in to eBay for different tasks). They then may unwittingly enter their eBay User name and password into the spoof site, which is designed to harvest the information for fraudulent activities such as account hijackings.

Not only is the seller vulnerable, but for auctions where Questions and Answers are displayed on the original auction description page, potential buyers may fall for the scam...