About got scammed.....

[Chad]

I recently placed a bid on an amp on Ebay and lost the auction, but I was the second highest bidder. A few days later I got a "Second Chance" offer. Thankfully, I asked some questions and never got a response. This seemed strange because I had asked the seller some questions BEFORE the auction ended and he was always quick to get back. Then a couple days later, I got ANOTHER "Second Chance" offer. At this point, I started digging further and found that they were both scam offers seemingly from two different scam parties. I must say that they were VERY well done. Kinda scary actually. Had I not sent that unanswered email, I could have easily went for this.

One thing I learned is that I'm gonna start using the Ebay mail system more often. If a message doesn't appear in there, then you KNOW it is pretty much a scam.

On thing that concerns me......WHERE did those scammers get my email address?

[RacerX]

This is becoming increasingly common. QuantumRider was talking in the chat room about 2 that he got today...

[jackson1]

......WHERE did those scammers get my email address?

Did they contact you using the address you have registered with eBay?

Do you have an "About me" page on eBay? If yes, what's on it?

[toejam]

Yep, happened to me last week.

http://www.jcfonline.com/forums/showthread.php?t=61255

I also got another email for yet a second offer on the same guitar a few days later. Both emails were reported to ebay, and they informed me that both they were indeed fraudulent. And I did check my inbox and never got any messages generated through ebay, so that's a telltale sign right there.

[Chad]

Did they contact you using the address you have registered with eBay?

Do you have an "About me" page on eBay? If yes, what's on it?

Yes, they contacted me via my Ebay email address, but I don't have that address listed anywhere. I don't have an About Me page either. Thoughts?

[jackson1]

I don't know... I'm thinking.. ()...

Does the seller of the auction in question know your email address?

Have you configured eBay to hide your email address when conversing?

Have you ever emailed eBay sellers/buyers outside eBay's message system, using the address in question?

Some of these questions are far out, but the scammers use pretty far out schemes sometimes.

Think about it, what have you done in the past that could have revealed your email address?

Maybe eBay has a flaw - or can be hacked.

[Chad]

The actual seller does have my email address. I haven't configured Ebay to hide my email address, but I'm thinking that might be a good idea. I've also contacted Ebay sellers with this email address directly when they say in the body of the auction to contact at a given email address. But those are legitimate sellers and there shouldn't be any tie to the scammers. I've strained my brain on this and I'm coming up empty.

[jackson1]

The only feasible explanation I can come up with is, that somehow your eBay handle + eBay email address is on a list, that is being used by these people. That, or a previous person you dealt with, is following you around on eBay and scamming you. Or he sold your data to a scammer.

I would really like to hear what the other JCF'ers has to say about Chad's situation.

Anyone with a plausable explanation as to how a scammer know his eBay email address?