Weird question from buyer on E-Bay

[godsey1]

I just got this e-mail from a user on E-Bay on my auction for a GBA system:

 

Dear sir/madam,

With China entering into WTO,our company has been eastablised.We are a large trading company from china,an agent of all the well-known digital product factories,and facing to wholesalers worldwide. We export all kinds of digital products, and offer competitive and reasonable price and good quality ,so you can make a big profit.In these years,We?ve gained a good reputation and welcomed by many customs worldwide.

Please feel free to contact us if any questions .We will try our best to give you a satisfactory answer.

 

This is the first of these that I have gotten. It also has their contact information(everything from phone number - fax - e-mail). This is a weird one, and it has nothing to do with my auction???????

 

Tony

[Albert]

Spam. I would report it to eBay.

 

..Al

[BuddyBuddies]

yep,its spam

[NightSprinter]

Had a similar message in regards to my partially-working 1040STf that I just sold. I flagged it, and quickly got a notification from eBay about the "person" trying to do a scam.

[godsey1]

It's reported I have had some of these before, but this one is just different.

 

Tony

[Brian R.]

It's reported I have had some of these before, but this one is just different.

 

Tony

 

It's garbage. You can report it, but I doubt eBay will do anything. Probably just as well to ignore it and delete it. It's obviously junk.

 

My problem is I keep getting "alert" emails from eBay saying something about my report not being reviewed by them because it wasn't sent in properly. Problem is, I never sent any report to them.

[A.J. Franzman]

I keep getting "alert" emails from eBay saying something about my report not being reviewed by them because it wasn't sent in properly. Problem is, I never sent any report to them.

I have the same problem. What it is, is that some spammer is spamming [email protected] and forging my (or your) address as the "From:" address. When [email protected] gets an email that is not a forwarded message containing full headers, it auto-responds to what it thinks is the original message sender with an alert message to the effect of "hey dummy, this address is only for forwarded messages". Unfortunately, this auto-reply contains not a single trace of the original offending message which triggered it, so there's no way for the victim (you and me) to take action against the real guilty party. Also, I have tried several times to get eBay's people savvy to the problem and how to, at a minimum, provide the necessary info in the auto-response so that victims such as us can go after the offender rather than the middleman. Unfortunately, none of eBay's flunkies seem to have a clue about how email networking works, and in some cases display appallingly poor English reading comprehension as well.

Edited July 9, 2007 by A.J. Franzman

[godsey1]

Well, it looks like E-Bay is starting to do something about these "people". Here is an e-mail that I got from them(E-Bay):

 

SP NOTICE: eBay Ask Seller a Question or Contact eBay Member Alert

 

 

 

 

Dear godsey1 ([email protected]):

 

Our records indicate that you received an email from ID protected through our Contact eBay Member or Ask Seller a Question feature. Please be aware that the email might contain a fraudulent offer to purchase or sell an item outside of eBay. We recommend not responding to the sender because the email might be an attempt to obtain your email address.

 

If you have already completed a transaction with a person who has asked that you take the transaction outside of eBay or if you are a seller who has already shipped an item to the buyer and the transaction was completed outside of eBay, we suggest you take the following steps:

 

1. Contact the payment service that you used to make the purchase. If you paid by credit card, most card issuers provide consumer protection in online fraud cases.

 

2. Please complete the Item Bought Outside of eBay form or the Item Sold Outside of eBay form. To access these forms, go to:

 

http://pages.ebay.com/help/tp/isgw-fraud-non-ebay.html

 

Click the "Item Bought Outside of eBay form" or the "Item Sold Outside of eBay form" link. Enter your information in the following page and then click the "Submit" button. The information you provide will allow us to work more effectively with law enforcement in case an investigation occurs.

 

3. If you were the seller and shipped the item to a fraudulent buyer, contact the shipping carrier that you used because the company may be able to assist you further. If you sent the item through the U.S. Postal Service, file a mail fraud claim. To do so, please visit:

 

http://www.usps.com/postalinspectors/fraud/

 

4. Contact the local law enforcement where you sent your payment or where you sent the item. The authorities where the seller or the buyer lives might be able to provide additional assistance. To find local law enforcement, visit:

 

http://www.usacops.com/

 

To protect your email and your eBay account, we recommend that you follow these safety tips:

 

- Do *not* respond to the sender either through the eBay system or your email account. An offer to buy or sell an item outside of eBay is against our policies, might be fraudulent, and will not be covered by eBay protection programs.

 

- If you received what appears to be a Second Chance Offer for an item that you recently bid on, check My Messages to confirm whether the offer is legitimate. Valid Second Chance Offers appear in My Messages with a blue background and a subject stating, "eBay Second Chance Offer for Item...." If you receive a Second Chance Offer directly in your personal email and it is not in My Messages, that means it is not a legitimate offer. If a Second Chance Offer appears in My Messages with a subject line of "Message from eBay Member," it is not a legitimate Second Chance Offer. Before responding to a Second Chance Offer, make sure it contains both the blue background in My Messages and the subject line of "eBay Second Chance Offer for Item.."

 

- Never pay for an eBay item using instant cash, wire transfer services such as Western Union or MoneyGram. It's against the eBay Accepted Payments policy for a seller to request payment using these methods. They are unsafe, especially if you're paying someone whom you don't know.

 

Regards,

 

eBay Trust & Safety

 

They NARU now, so if they keep getting rid of these members, it will be a better a little better on E-Bay,

 

Tony

Edited July 13, 2007 by godsey1

[Pengwin]

I get those emails from China, apparently, every time I put something up on eBay for sale. I also get one of those automated responses a day or two later. I'm afraid it just goes with the territory these days