Scam....beware!

[ejparrott]

Allegedly from ebay, this is the second time it's happened to me in a fortnight...recieved this this mornng :

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Hi,

It is your item still for sale? . http://www.ebay.co.uk (link removed - its not safe!)

I offer you 500 Gbp cash right now
just let me know your postal code and i can come with cash tonight. thank you


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http://www.ebay.co.uk
Item Id: 25133
Order Id: 251332403040-131995
End time: 25-Feb-14 15:53:28 GMT
Buyer:

jenniferb4987 (21)
100.0% Positive Feedback
Member since 27-Oct-09 in United Kingdom
Location: United Kingdom
Buyer email address: jenniferb4987@aol.com
Listing Status: This message was sent while the listing was active.


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Bit odd...I've had nothing for sale for quite some time!

Rather worryingly I then had this :

Hi,

I won your auction - . http://www.ebay.co.uk (again...removed for safety)

i try to call you 10 times , and no answer
just let me know your postal code and i can come with cash tonight.if no , i report you to police and ebay thank you


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http://www.ebay.co.uk
Item Id: 2513324030
Order Id: 251332403040-1319952177015
End time: 25-Feb-14 15:53:28 GMT
Buyer:

jenniferb4987 (21)
100.0% Positive Feedback
Member since 27-Oct-09 in United Kingdom
Location: United Kingdom
Buyer email address: jenniferb4987@aol.com
Listing Status: This message was sent while the listing was active.


Marketplace safety tip Marketplace safety tip

Keep your money safe - never pay for items with cash or instant money transfer services, such as Western Union or MoneyGram. In the past some sellers have exploited these payment methods in order to defraud buyers, so eBay has banned them from the site.
Received a Second Chance Offer email? Double check that it's genuine: Second Chance Offer emails come directly from eBay and are shown in your My Messages.
Trade safely. Beware of anyone who contacts you about buying or selling outside of eBay. When you trade outside eBay, you're not able to leave feedback or take advantage of our protection programmes and resolution tools. Report an inappropriate email.
eBay helps guard your privacy and online safety when you use our messaging tools. If you and the member you're contacting haven't bought or sold from each other recently, our tools may make both of your email addresses anonymous.


Email reference id: [#a08-5ddkdowium#]_[#8b5a712161724fbe95aed943c8628e52#]
Please don't remove this number. Customer Support may ask you for this number, should you need assistance.

Learn More to protect yourself from spoof (fake) emails.

Another eBay member sent this email to your email address through the eBay platform. eBay takes no liability for the sending of this email or its content.

Read our Privacy Policy and User Agreement if you have any questions.

You can report this message as unsolicited (spam/spoof) email.

This email was sent by eBay Europe S.à r.l., which may make use of its affiliates to provide the eBay services. If you are a non-EU resident, please find the contact data of your contracting party in the User Agreement.

Copyright © 2013 eBay Inc. All Rights Reserved. Designated trademarks and brands are the property of their respective owners. eBay and the eBay logo are trademarks of eBay Inc. eBay Imprint.

It is fake, sure way to tell is that it doesn't have my ebay user name, it just says 'Hi'. Ebay's own security pages tells you that they always use your user name and not a generic 'Hi' or 'Hi member'. Any messages they do send will also be in your Ebay message box.

As it's the second time in a fortnight I've had it, I thought I'd just let you know. If you get it don't open the links, they are dangerous, my work antivirus went loopy and I refused to open it at home.

[daveturnbull]

I've had loads of those recently. Easy to spot, just hover your mouse over the links and they're clearly not eBay so into the spam folder it goes.

[Nigelw]

I had them too, not sold anything on ebay since I left the UK 6yrs ago.

I just delete everything that is not expected or suspect.

[rovernut]

Had loads too. I always forward them to spoof@ebay.com and they always respond with a thank you and a description of the type of scam it relates to. Normally they are phishing e mails after your login details. Once forwarded I DELETE.

[FridgeFreezer]

Just remember: Everything on the internet is a scam / virus / lies.

[Glue]

Just remember: Everything on the internet is a scam / virus / lies.

Even this post...

[disco2hse]

Even this post...

And that one...

[western]

Just delete them, all scam message supposedly from paypal I forward to Paypal using their spoof@paypal.com address.

[CwazyWabbit]

I normally like to take a wander around the fake sites and 'assess their security'

[simonr]

I normally like to take a wander around the fake sites and 'assess their security'

. I'm saying nothing!

Si

[sean f]

Had similar e-mails from Barcleycard, along the lines of follow the link and re-enter all your security data so we can up date our records. Since I have never had a Barcleycard or banked with them pretty obvious spoof, also similar from inland revenue, you have a tax refund due please enter all your details here....

In both cases I forwarded it to the respective fraud departments and deleted the origional. I normally do forward the e-mals to the fraud departments (most of the big companies have one) as the sooner they know about these things the faster they can take action to shut them down.

Other one I have had several times lately is a phone call from someone supposedly from microsoft (generally with a very heavy foriegn accent) claiming they have traced a fault to my computer and would I log onto there site and they will fix it for me....needless to say caller identification disabled. Looking it up and the scam is when you hand over control of the computer to them they disable your antivirus, suck in any useful data and then install a virus before charging you to take it back off again but leave behind a data gather thing which then forwards all you logins passwords to them in the future. Confused me the first time as it was unexpected but when they couldn't tell me which computer or which version of Windows I knew it was a scam, claiming I had a mac confused them more... They where pretty pushy on the phone though and I can see where someone with little computer knowledge could be taken in.

[CwazyWabbit]

Sean, I have friends who relish these calls. They have a little unofficial competition as to how long they can keep the scammer on the phone for.

The record set by one of them was quite a few hours, they even got the scammer to call them back after they had their tea. When they kept giving incorrect credit card details the scammer then locked them out of the machine they were working on and demanded payment before they would unlock it again. My friend then took great delight in informing them that all they had done was locked up a virtual pc that he could simply rollback or delete.

[simonr]

They don't seem to call me any more!

Si

[sean f]

Sean, I have friends who relish these calls. They have a little unofficial competition as to how long they can keep the scammer on the phone for.

The record set by one of them was quite a few hours, they even got the scammer to call them back after they had their tea. When they kept giving incorrect credit card details the scammer then locked them out of the machine they were working on and demanded payment before they would unlock it again. My friend then took great delight in informing them that all they had done was locked up a virtual pc that he could simply rollback or delete.

Have done the same with a double glazing sales person who rang me at work, keep him on for nearly an hour even passed him on to some one else to talk to for 20 minutes, agreed that new windows would be a great idea even a conservatory was possible, it was going great till he asked me to confirm the address to send an engineer round to measure up, it was as Aberdeen number but he was very confused when I gave him a latitude and longditude, finally I let on I was on a drilling rig in the North Atlantic, I just about heard the swearing as he slammed the phone down.

[JeffR]

Try telling them you are Microsoft Systems engineer and ask for their licence number they tend to bugger off sharpish like. Once had one on the go for the best part of 2 hours - he was getting really wound up as I kept telling him that I I did not have a desktop on my computer, rather the computer was on the desktop... He twigged eventually then suggested I had sex with my mother...

[CwazyWabbit]

Have done the same with a double glazing sales person who rang me at work.....

... finally I let on I was on a drilling rig in the North Atlantic, I just about heard the swearing as he slammed the phone down.

Brilliant

[Anderzander]

Sean, I have friends who relish these calls. They have a little unofficial competition as to how long they can keep the scammer on the phone for.

The record set by one of them was quite a few hours, they even got the scammer to call them back after they had their tea. When they kept giving incorrect credit card details the scammer then locked them out of the machine they were working on and demanded payment before they would unlock it again. My friend then took great delight in informing them that all they had done was locked up a virtual pc that he could simply rollback or delete.

That reminds me of this guy:

[Briarston]

I had a run in with scammers recently.

My internet connection had become so slow it was practically unusable.

I had been in contact with the ISP. engineers several times, the last time was the previous evening,

so when I got a phone call from "the engineer" the following lunch time I was not unduly suspicious.

I asked why they had not asked for any letters from my password and was told that they knew all about

my problem. I asked if they were my ISP engineers and was assured that they worked for them and others.

As requested, I switched on my computer and entered numbers as requested - still not suspicious as I had

been asked to do this previously. Then I realised that the computer was being scanned and demanded to

know why, and was told it was "to remove viruses picked up from the internet" which they would remove.

Now, I had only had this computer a few days, and it had very little internet use due to the original problem.

By now, lots of unwanted icons were appearing on the desk top, and when I again protested I was passed

over to "the manager" who told me they were cleaning up my computer and it was going to cost me £199(inc.vat)

for their service.

Oh no it's *!!% not, said I, unplugging the router and shutting down, before throwing the phone across the room

Five minutes later they phoned back, demanding payment within 24hrs. as I had requested their services (had not!)

After some more choice words to him, I slammed the phone down again.

As it happens, they had previously given me their phone no. This I passed on to my ISP who said they would have

the line blocked( don't know If they could, but have not been bothered since)

It seems that these people were just "fishing" and their call fitted in with my circumstances.

Incidentally, the problem was cured by Openreach. Something to do with the local exchange.

Also, while two finger typing this, I have to keep stopping to get rid of "Pando Media Booster" installer which

keeps popping up. Anyone know anything about this?

[CwazyWabbit]

I'd have a try running Malwarebytes anti malware (use the free version and don't select the free trial of the pro version) you can scan your PC and it will remove a lot of rubbish for you. https://www.malwarebytes.org/downloads/

I haven't come across Pando Media Booster but it sounds like the usual dodgy helper type malware, if malware bytes doesn't remove it have a look at this video as it may help

Feel free to PM me if you need more help.

[BogMonster]

Have done the same with a double glazing sales person who rang me at work, keep him on for nearly an hour even passed him on to some one else to talk to for 20 minutes, agreed that new windows would be a great idea even a conservatory was possible, it was going great till he asked me to confirm the address to send an engineer round to measure up, it was as Aberdeen number but he was very confused when I gave him a latitude and longditude, finally I let on I was on a drilling rig in the North Atlantic, I just about heard the swearing as he slammed the phone down.

Nice one

[sean f]

I had a run in with scammers recently.

My internet connection had become so slow it was practically unusable.

I had been in contact with the ISP. engineers several times, the last time was the previous evening,

so when I got a phone call from "the engineer" the following lunch time I was not unduly suspicious.

I asked why they had not asked for any letters from my password and was told that they knew all about

my problem. I asked if they were my ISP engineers and was assured that they worked for them and others.

As requested, I switched on my computer and entered numbers as requested - still not suspicious as I had

been asked to do this previously. Then I realised that the computer was being scanned and demanded to

know why, and was told it was "to remove viruses picked up from the internet" which they would remove.

Now, I had only had this computer a few days, and it had very little internet use due to the original problem.

By now, lots of unwanted icons were appearing on the desk top, and when I again protested I was passed

over to "the manager" who told me they were cleaning up my computer and it was going to cost me £199(inc.vat)

for their service.

Oh no it's *!!% not, said I, unplugging the router and shutting down, before throwing the phone across the room

Five minutes later they phoned back, demanding payment within 24hrs. as I had requested their services (had not!)

After some more choice words to him, I slammed the phone down again.

As it happens, they had previously given me their phone no. This I passed on to my ISP who said they would have

the line blocked( don't know If they could, but have not been bothered since)

It seems that these people were just "fishing" and their call fitted in with my circumstances.

Incidentally, the problem was cured by Openreach. Something to do with the local exchange.

Also, while two finger typing this, I have to keep stopping to get rid of "Pando Media Booster" installer which

keeps popping up. Anyone know anything about this?

That sounds almost exactly the call I had, except I had no problems and got suspisious also it was difficult to understand the person calling as there english was very bad which gave me more time.

As with all these types of scam they can work if as unfortunately happened in your case they call at the wrong time, when you are expecting a call from someone and don't realise they aren't the person you expected.

Genuine callers don't mind when you check them out anyone who objects would instantly make me suspisious.

[Steve King]

I have received several calls from people claiming to be the "Service Provider for Windows Computers". All of the calls appear to have originated from the Indian sub-continent!!

The callers were pretty amateurish and would have been amusing if we didn't get so many bloomin' unwanted callers in the first place!! Registering with the Telephone Preference Service http://www.tpsonline.org.uk/tps/index.html cut the number of calls down, but investing in a call blocker (available from Argos, eBay and other outlets for around £30) has reduced the number of unwanted caller to almost zero! The call blocker comes with a number of numbers already pre-blocked and you can block any unwanted caller just by pressing a button whilst they are still on line. You can also program the call blocker to reject calls with withheld numbers or overseas call etc.

[De Ranged]

when I was doing my degree in computing we stumbled on some rather funny sites to do with scamming the scammers... if you have a day to spare run a google search it is really good reading

One guy strung out a Nigerian scammer for 6 months, hooked him with comments about being a church secretary and keen to invest church money... at one stage convinced him he had joined a traveling circus as a clown... got pic's of the scammer then made him join his church (made up) this required a proof so got him to tattoo himself lol

Another managed to get the scammer to send money to him to cover the cost of converting the money and posting it lol

Have had the microsoft tech ring had her on the phone for 2hrs with her trying to solve the problems with my pc so they could connect (while I was surfing 4wd sites) at the end of it I decided to go to the shed so I told her I have a degree and run ubunto not windows and if they were to call again I would waste even more of there time lol haven't had another call......