I, like many other modelers use ebay to buy models I cant find elsewhere snd sometimes thin out my ever growing pile of "to do kits" of models that where bought as part of larger auctions and I dont want them or I bought them and found out they were crap (zengdefue's F-111) and resold them with a little more honesty than the original seller.
Any ways, I have just become a victim of identity and computer fraud. What I want to do is share with you the whole story in hopes that some other schuck doesn't make a fellow modeler a victim like me.
About the 2 weeks ago I recieved an email that "looked" like it was from ebay asking telling me my account was temporarily disabled and would remain so until I updated my account informtation. It was even thoughtful enough to provide a link to update said information. When I clicked on the link it sent me to what appeared to be ebay's log in page asking your user id and password. I did this and was linked to another page that looked like the one I filled out when I set up my ebay account asking for address, phonenumber, email info and credit card info. I was about to start filling out the info when I noticed the web page wasn't a secure link. This got me a little curious and in another window I went to Ebay's home page and was going to go to thier help site and ask about the email, well my computer somtimes goes straight to my account when I go to ebays web site. You can imagine I was pretty suprised when an account that was supposed to be temporarily suspended opened right up. Well I sent off my question to ebay and got an almost immediate response stating that the email I received had not originated from ebay. Well thinking "no harm" done, I hadnt entered any address,personal, or credit card info... nothing to worry about. Well I forgot that I had entered my user id and pass word on the first link thus giving the rotten lowlife who started this email access to my ebay account. First thing he or she did was change my personal info and shipping address's so anything I won over the last two weeks was mailed to his/her address. Then changed my email address. Now I know why I stopped getting those anoying "bid confirmation" "you have been outbid" "congratulations you are the buyer for item #......" email that ebay sends out. This was a very smart move for the scum ball who did this for reasons other than the above listed. Now this is where it gets intresting. This person listed for sale
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2248790643&sspagename=STRK%3AMESO%3AIT&rd=1
If the link doesnt work the details are. 6 tickets for MLB All Stargames and the auction sold for more than $1'000 Ive tried to contact the buyer and hope he hasnt payed for this item yet but nothing so far. By changing my email addy I did get any of the email traffic between the guy that one the auction or the that listed the item.
If this sounds familiar to any of you in regaurds to your ebay accounts I suggest you quickly check your ebay accounts, change your passwords, check and change any personal info thats not correct, and also change your email passwords. Im going to post this in all the forums so hopefully no one else will get suckered like this. Please if your so inclined, copy and past this and email it to your friends especialy if you know they use ebay. Sorry for wasting your guys time with something not as nice to hear about like how my current builds are going but I want as many people as possible to know about this. I wonder if its possible to to get FSM to run an article about this seeing how they advertise the use of ebay to so much. Dont get me wrong. Ive found some awsome deals on ebay and will continue to use them. Now Im just a little bit smarter and hopefully so are you