eBay Phone-Lads

eBay scammers often work by hijacking another user's account, although using a stolen or phished credit card to set up a fresh account is also viable, but lacks the added benefit of the innocent eBayer's positive feedback.

Hijacking can be acheived by hacking the often very weak passwords many users choose or by going phishing, i.e. sending out an email which appears to originate from eBay but including a link to a fake ebay login page and harvesting passwords from there.

These scammers are generally very professional and will have a large number of hijacked accounts to choose from. Once he has hijacked the account, scammer will set up an auction for his non existent goods. He will place his email prominently throughout the advert and encourage buyers to email him before bidding. This could be for a better deal or for details on shipment, et cetera. Once he has the buyer contact him, then the standard Western Union scam will unfold.

Another clue pointing to a stolen account can be found in the feedback of the innocent party. Often they have a completely different ebay history, for example as a buyer not a seller, or if a seller, then as a seller of items quite unrelated to the advert in question. For good examples of these scams then try searching for the latest mobile phone of the moment, a search for the nokia n91 will give a result page of which 90% are scammer hijacked accounts.

The use of this redirection marks out a scammer and is on its own enough reason for Ebay to act. Often they will also link to a fraudulent website, this again is enough basis for a report. Report by going to Community/Safety Centre/Report another problem/Account Security/Unauthorised Account activity/Report another users account as stolen. To report this activity you need to be an ebay member.

Once Ebay has been notified, then the email address can be either shutdown or baited. The method of baiting is a matter of experimentation, these scammers are a different breed to the Lagos lads, most appear to be based in Eastern Europe,usually Romania. Judging by the quick response time when contacted and the rate at which they scam, they have their own internet connections and consider it a full time job. They wont be immune to their time being wasted however and perhaps the moneygram safari would be an option.

The Ebay phone scammers in this database are purely those using this type of strategy, there are numerous other known methods of fraud on Ebay. This particular type is easily spotted, easily reported and their addresses easily harvestable.