If you've been registered as a member with either eBay or paypal for a while, you should be familiar with spoof emails. If your not, then consider yourself very fortunate. Most eBay users receive a minimum of one spoof email a month, with those most active receiving several daily. Spoof emails are sent by criminals & fraudsters, who try to imitate eBay or paypal official emails and drive you towards their own website. Often the email subjects will try to convey some sense of urgency such as notifying you your account has been suspended unless you log in immediately to resolve the problem. These emails are normally very convincing to users who have not received a spoof email before, they also normally carry the eBay or Paypal logo as well to increasingly look official. Spoof emails subjects as becoming more sneaky and realistic, and may be in the form of a "Question from members" email or "You have added a new email address to your paypal account." The emails always contain a link to the eBay or paypal website. However, this link really redirects users to the spoof website which will be a complete identical copy of the official website. Once you log in on the spoof website, your account has been compromised and the criminals have control of your account. You will be locked out of your account and it will normally be used for committing fraud on other users. Most times, you won't be any the wiser about what has happened until you go to use your ebay or paypal account later and will be unable to login. So, how can you stop spoof emails. Well, really there is no effective way you can stop yourself being targeted. Even people who are not Paypal or eBay members are regular targeted in the hope by fraudsters they'll strike gold. But, you can prevent yourself from falling for any such scam. The easiest way is to download the official eBay toolbar to your web browser. This contains a featured which notifies you are on an official eBay website, making it easy to spot spoof websites. Other signs you need to be familiar with, is spoof emails will generally be addressed to "Dear Member", whereas genuine emails always contain your name or trading name. Also, official ebay emails will also appear within the "My Messages" section of eBay, so log into your eBay account and make sure it appears. Once you've discovered your first spoof email, be sure to forward it to eBay so they can investigate. Their email address for such purposes is spoof@ebay.co.uk |
