BB FANS

Just received this email and it's good ! Very good and will catch a lot out.

It looks like a buyer question and has the complete Ebay layout and logos etc down to the very last detail.

Says buyer id is bluebellvue and item number 250026510836.
The section with item url has a different item number that ended 25th October 2006,this one does come back as a Nokia Battery which ended in September 2006.

But if you go to click the view item you will be rerouted to a login page somewhere else where you might well be tricked into giving your details away.

Strange thing is if you enter the item number into the search on Ebay one of the alternative searches is bluebell ?!! And you get another item number listed that doesn't have an item ! Just gets weirder.

I haven't looked at the code attached to the 'respond now' button but again it won't send you to Ebay.

There might be a genuine user with this name I haven't checked but the email claims the user to be registered in the US and a member since May 2005.

As I said this looks so authentic that it will catch people out.

I received a spoof eBay email a few months ago but the "buyer" had a different username. I reported it to the REAL eBay and they gave me an email address to report it to if it ever happened again. This address is spoof@ebay.co.uk

I've had a couple too, and also reported them

More annoyed at the moment at STUPID spam emails from people saying they have all this money to give away in Nigeria or Cameroon or wherever - if anyone's got any tips on how to get rid of them? They get past my spam filter because they always change names and words in the title.

I must say NTL's filters seem to be blocking the worst of the spam but a few are still getting through.

I have loads of Message rules that looks at each message as it comes in and sorts it into different folders within the inbox. Everything that goes through them all gets shoved in a folder marked junk. I then look at the title and if it looks like spam it gets deleted without opening it.

Saying that if your using Outlook or Outlook Express then close the preview pane ,that way you never open a message unless you want to open it.

For anything that looks like an Ebay message use their message system rather than replying to an email by going to the site then going to your messages from 'my ebay' that way you'll know if the message came from via Ebay and there's no risk of giving out your login details.

Same goes for the bogus PayPal messages ,if there's a problem first off you'll never be asked for your details or given a button to click to login from an Email so again you'll be notified after login in if there's a problem.

In fact unless you have a very strong reason to believe any such Email including banking messages to be genuine then just hit the delete key. Banks should contact you either by phone or post so apart from some promotional messages there's rarely any reason for them to Email you. And you'll never be asked for your details and again always login from their website no matter how genuine an email seems.

I showed the latest Ebay Spoof to a colleague today and he said he'd have fallen for it. It's not until to look closely you spot the errors. Things like your Username is missing near the top ,the two item numbers and the fact that the text says the item is live but the closing date has past.
But if you glance at it and either click the link to the item or the 'respond now' button your hooked as the next thing you should see if a Login screen that should very closely resemble Ebays and you are then seconds away from giving someone access to your account and you can bet the first thing they'd do is change your password and email address so you can't access it !

Thanks for that Larry
Not that I have ever bought anything off eBay

Sounds like one of these guys. Quite a long read that but having received a tonne of these emails and heard horror stories of people losing thousands I found it rather entertaining.