Interesting e-mail from seller

[Felixthegamer]

I have a decent track record with e-bay and almost always have paid quickly. I received an e-mail from a user saying the following (I am taking out the private info)

"Hi,
It has been almost thirty days and I still have not received any payment for these auction winnings. I thought I would give you one more chance to honor your bids before I file non-paying bidder reports to ebay to recover my fees.
120188889429 WILLIAM SHATNER Six Million Dollar Man Signed Ltd Card $127.55 ID# Laz-01
Please add US shipping and Handling (See Description Per Item): $5.00
For a total of: $132.55"

I was taken back because this is not a card that pops up too often and I recalled this transaction. I had paid in a timely manner and he sent the item and I received it... almost a full year ago! I had to do a paypal search for the transaction and sure enough, there it was paid for in Dec 2007! I don't know what this seller was trying to do. I didn't respond, but did contact e-bay about it. Of course, I haven't heard from e-bay yet and don't really expect to. The seller is neatstuffcollectibles They have a web site store and looks like a brick and mortar store too. I just thought this was quite weird. I don't know if he was trying to scam me or what. Anybody else have weird tales like this?

[ryborg]

You sure the email was from the seller himself? It could be a phishing scheme using old information. Check your ebay "My Messages" to see if the message appears there, too. If it is there, either the seller's gone crazy or someone hacked his account and is trying to steal some quick cash from dumb ex-customers.

[Cornelius]

Or since this is a big seller, something just got mixed up. This seems by far the most likely option. If you haven't even emailed the seller, I think you are way over-reacting. I doubt he can even file such a claim this long after the fact. Probably just an automated system he has that picked you out for some oddball reason.

[Bibliophile]

This IS a fishing scam. It probably didn't come from the seller at all, but from someone pretending to be the seller. It is a trick to steal your passsword.

I know this because I FELL for this scam last year sometime. It totally messed up my account, because someone tried to log in from a suspicious IP address, and ebay detected it. Fortunately, ebay froze my account before whoever it was could do any serious damage, but my account was down for a while till I could verify my identity.

If you click on the link in the email to "respond now," it will take you to a website designed to look like ebay, but which is NOT ebay. They will want you to steal your password.

Go to ebay directly, by opening a new window, entering in the ebay URL, and logging in. Go to your inbox, and I bet the email won't be there because it didn't come from ebay.

[Felixthegamer]

It was not through e-bay's messege system. It was a normal e-mail. There was a link which linked to paypal to pay the seller. That link could have been a phishing link though. But they also mentioned separately what their paypal e-mail address is.

I don't think I am over-reacting as I earnestly sent an e-mail with the information I had to e-bay. I figure let e-bay sort it out and if they feel something funny is going on, they can act upon it. In my mail to them, I did not make an accusations, only stuck to the facts and what the seller's e-mail had said. If they don't do anything, that's ok by me. I just had hoped they would have sent something, even generic, that said "We are looking into" or whatever

It could have been a mistake on the sellers part. It just seems weird that this would happen a full year after the transaction. It could have been from another person and not the seller at all.

[jb143]

Some big time sellers use automated emailing systems to handle stuff like this. It could have just been a glitch on their end. If it was typed in person they wouldn't have waited a year.

[Dark_Sol]

Fishing indeed. I had tonns of such emails for years.

[skaar]

It's a scam - it drops off ebay's list after a few months, but if they've pulled transaction data back when winning bidders and all that were actually available... yeah.

I've had a few of those.

[heybtbm]

This IS a fishing scam. It probably didn't come from the seller at all, but from someone pretending to be the seller. It is a trick to steal your passsword.

I know this because I FELL for this scam last year sometime. It totally messed up my account, because someone tried to log in from a suspicious IP address, and ebay detected it. Fortunately, ebay froze my account before whoever it was could do any serious damage, but my account was down for a while till I could verify my identity.

If you click on the link in the email to "respond now," it will take you to a website designed to look like ebay, but which is NOT ebay. They will want you to steal your password.

Go to ebay directly, by opening a new window, entering in the ebay URL, and logging in. Go to your inbox, and I bet the email won't be there because it didn't come from ebay.

This is likely what is happening.

This exact thing happened to me two years ago. I got a bizarre e-mail about an old transaction. I clicked on the link provided and logged into ebay (or so I thought). When I was satisfied that the auction had nothing to do with me, I logged off and thought that would be that.

Nope.

About a week later someone was selling random sporting event tickets with my ebay account. I used ebay's live customer service and everything was taken care of in about 10 minutes. Close call. I've since learned my lesson and ignore the 5-10 similar e-mails I receive every week. I only contact sellers through the actual ebay messenger system. I NEVER respond to direct e-mails anymore....official or not.

[super nes]

When i get a email from ebay or any site i always contact them first to make sure its legit.

[Kevin H]

Send the email to spoof@ebay.com and spoof@paypal.com That is where they supposedly look at these type emails. I get them sometimes.