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Lesson 1 - Avoiding fraud

UPDATE: It has been pointed out to me that there is one situation where ebay will send you an email asking you to click on the link - it's the email to verify your email address (this happens when you first open an account).  Other than this DON'T click on a link in an email.

Before we do anything you should know about Fraud on eBay.  eBay is very successful and sells around US$11 Billion dollars each year (and rising), unfortunately with this amount of money involved you will find criminals.
The good news is that they are easy to spot and even easier to avoid once you spot them.

eBay is a secure site and has never been broken into by thieves.  The only way your account can be compromised is by the criminals gaining your account information, this involves deceit and trickery.
'Phishing' is the common term for how criminals collect your information, they send you an e-mail that seems to be from a legitimate source (either eBay or PAYPAL) but in reality the are from illegitimate sources.

First thing I need to explain is that eBay DOESN'T NEED YOUR PASSWORD under ANY circumstances.  If you contact a representative of eBay and they need to access your account (for whatever reason) they will do it via their own computers - they don't need YOUR password!

If you only learn one thing from my course then this is it - eBay doesn't need your password to access your account; so if someone asks for it then they are not from eBay.  (eBay will of course verify your identity before they access your account).

What do you do if you receive one of these?  Forward it onto spoof@ebay.com and then delete it.

What happens if you accidentally give your password up?  email customer support HERE

By the way, don't feel too bad if you get caught.  I've been on the Internet for 8 years and eBay for 6 years,  have a Diploma in software programming, a Degree in 'Information Technology' and I've still been tricked!!  

Below are a few examples with a few explanations.
Note that all of these are REAL and I have personally received.

Looking at the From: area of the email it says eBay, that's probably the easiest thing to change.  I could send you an email and make the return address Genghis Khan.  The email also uses the eBay logo, well that is easy to do as well.
The last thing here you need to know is the bottom line of http://signin.ebay.com/id-verify - this may look like where you would go if you clicked on it but that is not always the case, it's not a 'trick' to do this, it's very easy.
Note that the line at the top says 'Your registered name is included to show this message originated from eBay'?, well my name doesn't appear anywhere; and if they use my eBay name then that proves nothing as my eBay name is easily found.

The email was sent to koala@koalacomics.com.au - well that's me.  You're probably wondering why it was sent to me (and when you finally get one you'll ask yourself 'how did they get my email address?').  Criminals write programs to scan all the pages on eBay and search for everyones email address, and then they send these scam emails to EVERYONE and hope they get a 1% response rate.
One major spammer was accused of sending out 100 million emails per day.

If eBay need to send you an email they will send it to your eBay account.  So if you don't know if it is true or not then simply goto your web browser and type in www.ebay.com, if the email was real then there will be a note on your account.

Here the email asks you to click on this link in order to change your password.  If you click on this you will notice that you need to enter your old password.  Again, if you think it is real then enter www.ebay.com in your web browser and then see if it is real.

DON'T EVER CLICK ON THE LINK IN AN EMAIL.

A real email from eBay doesn't ask you to click on a link.

Note how the whole email is done the same as a real email?  They goto great lengths to make it look legitimate (they even go so far as to put the anti fraud eBay link in it!).
This email looks exactly how a real 'ask a seller a question' email looks like; when you are a seller you will get these a lot.

A little trick, if you hover the mouse over a link and not click a button then the REAL address appears!  I have shown that above where I have let the mouse hover over the 'Respond Now' button (the mouse pointer goes missing when the link comes up), the box with 'http://recover.redirectme.net/security-ebay.com/signin.html' is where you really would go if you clicked on the button (not where you thought!), please don't try to access this website as it is a criminal website (safer to just stay away).

Every trick used so far is easy to do, but how they did this one I don't know.  The link says 'http://signin.ebay.com/ebayISAPS.dll? etc etc'  and if you hover the mouse over the link it still says 'http://signin.ebay.com/ebayISAPS.dll? etc etc'!  But if you click on it you go to another site altogether!
Just remember that any email eBay sends you can be verified by going into your eBay account; if it's legitimate then there will be a message waiting for you - IF THERE IS NO MESSAGE IN YOUR EBAY ACCOUNT THEN IT IS FRAUD.

The last question would be - why do they want your account password?
The quick answer - most people use the same password for their eBay account and PAYPAL account (which you shouldn't do); once they have your eBay password they try to get into your PAYPAL account and loot you credit card within seconds.
The long answer - an iPod sells in Australia every 30 seconds.  The criminal will use your account to list 1,000 iPods at a very cheap price, when the buyer purchases one of these they are told to send the money via Wire transfer (not your PAYPAL account), they receive the money (there is no items of course) and then when the customers don't get their iPods then you are responsible.  
If you see an item with the description 'wire transfer only' then it's a hijacked account. 

A good web site for learning about different frauds is www.thebestscams.com

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