Outline:
Email purporting to be a status alert from eBay claims that your account has been used fraudulently without your permission and you must therefore click a link to secure the account.
Brief Analysis:
The email is not from eBay and the supposed security alert is not valid. The email is a phishing scam designed to steal your eBay account login details, your credit card numbers, and other identifying information.
Subject: Status Alert: your account has been used fraudulently without your permission !
eBay
Account ID: 0073621101
We have reason to believe that your eBay account has been used fraudulently without your permission. In addition, any unauthorized activity, such as buying or selling, has been canceled and any associated fees have been credited to your account. Any listings that we removed are included toward the end of this email. We assure you that your financial information is securely stored on a server and cannot be seen by anyone.
To secure your eBay account, you need to:
1 – Login to your account.
2 – Verify the contact information.
3 – Update your payment informations and other stored information on your eBay account is correct.
For detailed instructions, please click below :Click here for detailed instructions
We appreciate your understanding and thank you for being part of our community.
Regards, eBay
Please don’t reply to this message. It was sent from an address that doesn’t accept incoming email.
Copyright © 2016.
Detailed Analysis:
According to this “status alert” email, which purports to be from online selling website eBay, your eBay account has been used fraudulently without your permission.
The email claims that you must secure your account by logging in to verify your account information and update your payment details. It urges you to click a link to get detailed instructions.
However, the email is not from eBay and the claim that you must update your details because of unauthorized activity is not true. Instead, the email is a phishing scam designed to steal your personal and financial information.
If you click the link as instructed, you will be taken to a fraudulent website that has been designed to closely mirror a genuine eBay webpage. Once you have “logged in” on the fake website, you will be taken to an online “update form” that asks for your credit card numbers, your name and contact details, and other personally identifying information.
At the end of the “update” process, you may see a message claiming that you have successfully secured your account. You may then be automatically redirected to the real eBay website.
Meanwhile, however, the scammers can use the information you supplied to hijack your eBay account, gather more information about you, and conduct fraudulent transactions. They can also use your credit card to make even more fraudulent transactions. And, if they manage to collect enough of your personal and financial information, they may be able to steal your identity.
eBay customers are regularly targeted in such phishing campaigns. Be wary of any email or text message that claims to be from eBay and demands that you click a link or open an attached file to fix an alleged account security issue or update account details. eBay will not send you an unsolicited message of this nature.
It is always safest to login to eBay and your other online accounts by entering the address into your browser’s address bar or via a trusted app.
The eBay website includes information about identifying and reporting such phishing scam attempts.
Last updated: October 5, 2016
First published: October 5, 2016
By Brett M. Christensen
About Hoax-Slayer
References
Recognising Spoof (Fake) eBay Websites
Phishing Scam – eBay ‘Registration Suspension’ Email
Fake EBay ‘Order Confirmation’ Email Designed To Steal PayPal Login Details
Importance Notice
After considerable thought and with an ache in my heart, I have decided that the time has come to close down the Hoax-Slayer website.These days, the site does not generate enough revenue to cover expenses, and I do not have the financial resources to sustain it going forward.
Moreover, I now work long hours in a full-time and physically taxing job, so maintaining and managing the website and publishing new material has become difficult for me.
And finally, after 18 years of writing about scams and hoaxes, I feel that it is time for me to take my fingers off the keyboard and focus on other projects and pastimes.
When I first started Hoax-Slayer, I never dreamed that I would still be working on the project all these years later or that it would become such an important part of my life. It's been a fantastic and engaging experience and one that I will always treasure.
I hope that my work over the years has helped to make the Internet a little safer and thwarted the activities of at least a few scammers and malicious pranksters.
A Big Thank You
I would also like to thank all of those wonderful people who have supported the project by sharing information from the site, contributing examples of scams and hoaxes, offering suggestions, donating funds, or helping behind the scenes.I would especially like to thank David White for his tireless contribution to the Hoax-Slayer Facebook Page over many years. David's support has been invaluable, and I can not thank him enough.
Closing Date
Hoax-Slayer will still be around for a few weeks while I wind things down. The site will go offline on May 31, 2021. While I will not be publishing any new posts, you can still access existing material on the site until the date of closure.Thank you, one and all!
Brett Christensen,
Hoax-Slayer
