Fake bids

[spreading-joy-through-art]

Hi all, I have experienced a bidder 2 weeks ago that bid left feedback and stated they've submitted payment. Won't answer emails so now I have reported them to ebay. Also this week I just received an email from a bidder who claims that they did not bid on my item and someone stole their password. I suggested that they contact ebay for a bid retraction. My reason for this post is to "get the word out" and maybe watch for trends. I am not really sure if this is common? I haven't really ever seen it before. Both of these bidders didn't have any current feedback and I am not sure why it is happening. My aceos aren't expensive either. Thanks and I hope your sales go a little smoother than mine. I have blocked the first bidder and when the 2nd one gets their bid retracted I will be blocking them too. Thanks for your time, Joy

[poozybear]

Something similar happened to someone in this group a few years back. I don't remember all of the details, but I do remember that it happened to someone with a user ID that fell right in the middle of the alphabet. About 20 other users with similar IDs were all hit. It looked like the person doing the phishing had randomly selected a name off of eBay's user roster, then just went down the list from there. Maybe I can find the thread. I do remember that the buyer was in China, was buying inexpensive items (under 99¢), then immediately selling off the seller's contact info. -- Kathy

[poozybear]

Found it! It was Chris (geripatch). For some reason I clearly remembered it being a user name that occurred mid-alphabet, and the scammer worked systematically down the list from there. http://groups.ebay.com/topic/Atc-Amp-Aceo/Step-1-Click/Need-Help/1500858484&start=0 -- Kathy

[artistjillian]

Great memory Kathy! Well done. I guess this is more reason not to sell at low prices? -- ~Jillian artist, Jillian Crider ... google me!

[poozybear]

I don't know why I remembered that one. I was thinking maybe it was Jana (J), but it was geripatch. I think I remember the thread because that was the time that I started blocking Asia. After that happened to her, did NOT want any bids from China. -- Kathy

[sunshinesketches]

How does one block bids from a specific area? Because of all the hassles with Chinese sellers (art sweatshops) and the rumours of exactly the kinds of things mentioned above, I was boycotting sellers from China as well. Recently I have been buying from them because I've needed jewelry findings such as cat charms for my upcoming cat show; they are the cheapest sellers of such merchandise. Since that time, I've noticed a HUGE increase in spam from China on my Yahoo mail. Usually badly worded emails selling merchandise that I don't want. It used to be that I got a lot of Russian spam, now it seems to be from China.

[poozybear]

There are two ways you can do it. One is on the SELL YOUR ITEM form. You can select which countries you ship to - don't select Asia. Then, in the area for BUYER REQUIREMENTS, you'll get a box say says "Block bidders who . . ." followed by a list of things, like unpaid item strikes, no PayPal account, etc. Click off "Are registered in countries to which I don't ship." You can also do this in MY EBAY. On the left hand side, go to My Account>Site Preferences. Once in there, scroll down to Buyer Requirements, and you'll see the same option. The key is to be certain that you don't click off Asia as a country that you ship to. -- Kathy -- Edited by poozybear at 03/30/2009 9:50 AM PDT

[sunshinesketches]

Thanks Kathy. I never would have even known to look for those. Even knowing exactly what to look for, it was tricky to find them. Two things that were interesting about having done this. First, I noticed that you can't block bidders who have just one unpaid item strike (the minimum is two). Same with some other features like negative feedback. Second, when I went back to my listing page, I noticed that I had fewer watchers on a couple of my (non-art) items. I wonder if there was a corelation? Maybe not, but it was noticable. Hmmmm.

[sunshinesketches]

Of course this will only block people from those countries who have registered accounts, not those who phish and get passwords to accounts registered elsewhere. But every little bit helps.

[poozybear]

I've blocked bidders who have two or more UPI strikes in the last 12 months. It's made a big difference. Something that a lot of people don't know is there (it's fairly well hidden). . . go back to that area in MY EBAY (My Account>Site Preferences>Buyer Requirements), you'll see a link that says "Buyer Requirements Activity Log." Check on that from time to time. It tells you who was blocked, and why. In the last month, I have had 15 people blocked due to too many UPI strikes. That's one tool that eBay has given us that is actually useful. -- Kathy

[sunshinesketches]

Wow. Mine says "there is no information to display at this time." But still I'm so glad to have that option turned on.

[poozybear]

That might be because you just started using the setting. I'll bet if you check back in a few weeks, you'll see some that didn't get through the filter. I have a few that were blocked for being in countries where I don't ship, but almost all had too many UPI strikes. The interesting thing is that some of them came back and made multiple attempts to buy, like they were frustrated by being blocked, and kept on trying. It's nice to be able to monitor that, because I know how many unpaid items I probably would have ended up with, if not for that blocking ability. What I can't figure out is why ebay still allows us to block people with negative feedback numbers (like -1). Since you can no longer neg a buyer, doesn't this seem moot? -- Kathy

[spreading-joy-through-art]

With my fake bidders I have found a common link with a seller. This seller has sold over 66 items this month to these fake bidders. This is the only seller of the bidders auctions that is leaving feedback for what I assume is the hijacked ID's. The fake bidders seem to be going for items under a dollar to about $3. They well even outbid each other. Since ebay has taken away Sellers rights to leave negative feedback I posted a positive feedback with a *Beware* and some other thoughts in the part where you write comments. I hope it will help other sellers. The only reason I can come up with for this seller to do this is that they want to rank themselves higher so they can scam someone else with their positive feedback. Oh yeah and the seller leaves feedback almost as fast as the bidders do. I am thinking they must all live on the same street to get that kind of turn around from the post office. ha ha. Anyway, if anyone is interested in more information I am happy to receive an email. I appreciate all your comments and I hope that we all can be better prepared. Best of luck to you all, Joy

[sunshinesketches]

No Kathy, my unpaid buyer strike thingy has been on for a long time, it was the out-of-shipping-area bidders I just blocked. I still don't see why they look for someone's personal info. They can't get your bank account or credit card info doing this... and if they ever showed up at your house, how do they know you don't have a big burly husband with a gun and a big mean dog?

[poozybear]

I went back and read geripatch's thread, and in her case, they were just after the email address for spamming purposes. I've heard of this happening to other people. The scammer buys a cheap item with BIN, and within the hour you start receiving hundreds of spam emails. It's a way of harvesting valid email addresses, so they can try to sell you viagra. -- Kathy

[sunshinesketches]

Good plan. I'm sure that even if the first 99,999,999 emails didn't make me buy Viagra, then the 1,000,000,000th one would. Heh.