Sunday, December 2, 2012

Those secret sale prices on eBay

The title of this post was the subject of a phishing email I received that I immediately reported to spoof@ebay.com.  eBay confirmed in their standard form letter that the email did not originate from them.  So if you receive something similar, know that "those secret sale prices on eBay" are nonexistent.  The phishing email is copied below wherein I replaced my information with an asterisk.  Links were removed as well:



approved by Open eBay Applications
Dear *,

Here's a secret: Many eBay items have two prices - the public price posted on eBay and a secret sale price 20-50% lower. As a long-time, trusted eBay buyer, we invite you to get the secret sale prices.

Fewer than 1% of all eBay buyers are invited to join our eBay-approved SecretSale program. Joining gives you exclusive access to eBay listings offering these secret sale prices. This is the only invitation you will get and your invitation expires in 48-hours.


Your personal invitation

Yes, I wish to join to get daily updates on SecretSale prices for select eBay items.
or

No thanks. Release my invitation to another loyal eBay buyer and opt-me out of future invites.

The above invitation is tied specifically to your eBay ID *. Only purchases made with that eBay ID will qualify for SecretSale prices. This is 100% free to you and comes as a benefit for being a long-time, loyal eBay buyer

Here's how SecretSale works: By enrolling, you will receive a daily email showing SecretSale prices on thousands of eBay items. These prices are 20-50% below the published prices on eBay. Follow the links in the daily email to purchase any promoted item and you will automatically receive 20-50% back as cash, deposited directly into your PayPal account within 5 business days of payment. That's it.

Please act now. Your invitation is good for only 48-hours.

Sincerely,

The SecretSale Team 

To opt-out of our email list: Opt-Out

or you can visit our Privacy Policy and User Agreement if you have any questions.

SecretSale is operated through www.OnPagePromotions.com, which is located at 101 Longwood Drive, Chapel Hill, NC 27514 Phone: (919) 338-1502. Copyright © 2003 - 2011 MyStoreCredit, Inc. All Rights Reserved.


I was both entertained and infuriated by these crooks:  Entertained by their clever yet deceitful way to appear legitimate (playing on most people's desire to get something for literally nothing) and infuriated because they thought I fall into this group. 

Please don't be spoofed, and as eBay's reply instructed:


*Never* respond to a suspicious email or click any links in the email
message. If you think you may have given out personal information in a
spoof email or website, you need to take steps to protect your identity
right away. For more information about what to do, go to:

http://pages.ebay.com/help/account/protecting-identity-theft.html

If you'd like to learn more about how to spot a spoof email and stay
safe online, go to:

http://pages.ebay.com/help/tutorial/accountprotection/js_tutorial.html





dbg

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5 comments:

  1. Thanks Debbie! Happy Sunday to you.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I used to get those type of emails for Paypal. Dang crooks.

    ReplyDelete
  3. The internet is full of such scams! Sweet sounding ploys to get people to pay money or give private information for nonexistant services.

    It's quite easy to detect these scams (anything sugar coated is a red alert), thankfully, but a lot of younger Internet users (or even children with access to parents' accounts) are easy victims for these scams.

    I guess we need to update the "don't talk to strangers" rule for cyberspace :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. The internet is full of such scams! Sweet sounding ploys to get people to pay money or give private information for nonexistant services.

    It's quite easy to detect these scams (anything sugar coated is a red alert), thankfully, but a lot of younger Internet users (or even children with access to parents' accounts) are easy victims for these scams.

    I guess we need to update the "don't talk to strangers" rule for cyberspace :)

    ReplyDelete

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