agent

[timelesstunes]

I'm trying to stop a scam, but there are no agents to talk to.  

[timelesstunes]

Someone must know my priest and emailed me posing as him.  He wanted to surprise the church staff with 6 $100 gift cards.  I bought them and scratched them all off and sent them to my priest so he could distribute them as a thank you to staff.  Then I realized this morning, 9 hours later that the email was different and I never did talk on the phone with my priest.  I talked to my priest, and he isn't aware of any of this.  How do I contact e-bay to give a list of the gift cards and stop the account from receiving anything?  Why are there no live agents at 6:30am EST?  What is an email to report fraud for eBay?  Please help!  Shipments can be stopped today, and if my police department chooses to work on the case, then the account info can be reported and other people can be saved from losing money to scammers too.

[orangehound]

We are not customer service, but often more helpful than customer service ... 🙂

Post the details of what you are experiencing, and we may be able to give you advice.

[soh.maryl]

Perhaps you could return here and explain in more detail.  There are some issues on eBay where they have set up ways to resolve the problem without actually having to speak to anyone.  We might be able to direct you to the appropriate place to get help.  

[orangehound]

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@timelesstunes wrote:

Someone must know my priest and emailed me posing as him.  He wanted to surprise the church staff with 6 $100 gift cards.  I bought them and scratched them all off and sent them to my priest so he could distribute them as a thank you to staff.  Then I realized this morning, 9 hours later that the email was different and I never did talk on the phone with my priest.

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Your story makes the 3rd time I've heard this scam in the last 4 months.  I really appreciate your good heart, and your desire to love.    Hopefully it is not too late to have eBay cancel the cards.

eBay on this page does say to contact them, but you will likely have better luck messaging them through FaceBook or Twitter.   If I were to message eBay, I would give them an executive summary of what happened (like the message above), followed by details (card numbers, 1-2 images of emails, and when this happened).  Giving them all the information up front might help them block the cards more quickly, if the cards have not yet been used.

Sorry this happened.

[kensgiftshop]

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@timelesstunes wrote:

How do I contact e-bay to give a list of the gift cards and stop the account from receiving anything? 

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Sorry, the money was gone as soon as you gave the scammers the card numbers.

It won't get your money back, but you can file a police report.

[fab_finds4u]

eBay can't help you. The cards were used immediately. Even if they haven't been redeemed eBay won't refund you. The money is gone. I'm really sorry you were involved with a scam. 

[albertabrightalberta]

Ebay had nothing to do with this. I'm sorry you got scammed. 

[releasethekraken_1]

Sorry you got scammed, but why would you give out the hidden numbers? Those codes should only be accessed by the person who’s going to use the card, not by intermediaries.

The money has already been spent, and you won’t be able to recover it.

[donsdetour]

The con artist are improving it seems. Most likly got the info from your own system, like the spoof emails do.

https://pages.ebay.com/giftcardscams/ 

[px_455]

Do you use STRONG (16 numbers letters upper and lowercase and symbols) passwords?

Do you use unique passwords for each account?

Do you use 2-factor authentication?

Only you can prevent yourself from being scammed!

Don't make it easy on them!

[eburtonlab]

Most likly got the info from your own system, like the spoof emails do.

Possibly, though it is also possible that the scammer compromised the priest's email account and sent messages to all the contacts listed there. Or the scammer had just enough information to make it look like the message was from the priest. Scammers are experts at social engineering, and can often supply just a few details and count on the target to fill in the blanks make the proper assumptions.

It is not uncommon for scammers to send blind messages to users, impersonating a boss or superior, asking for gift cards to be purchased to be given out to staff members.

Some scammers go so far as to contact random people and leave a phone message or voicemail claiming to be a grandchild in some sort of legal trouble while on vacation. If the target calls back, the scammer will claim to be the grandchild's lawyer and request gift cards or money orders to bail the grandchild out of jail or pay a fine of some kind.

[releasethekraken_1]

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@px_455 wrote:

Do you use STRONG (16 numbers letters upper and lowercase and symbols) passwords?

Do you use unique passwords for each account?

Do you use 2-factor authentication?

Only you can prevent yourself from being scammed!

Don't make it easy on them!

---

It would help a lot if you would attempt to understand the issue before posting. The OP's passwords have NOTHING to do with this.

[donsdetour]

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@eburtonlab wrote:

Most likly got the info from your own system, like the spoof emails do.

Possibly, though it is also possible that the scammer compromised the priest's email account and sent messages to all the contacts listed there. Or the scammer had just enough information to make it look like the message was from the priest. Scammers are experts at social engineering, and can often supply just a few details and count on the target to fill in the blanks make the proper assumptions.

It is not uncommon for scammers to send blind messages to users, impersonating a boss or superior, asking for gift cards to be purchased to be given out to staff members.

Some scammers go so far as to contact random people and leave a phone message or voicemail claiming to be a grandchild in some sort of legal trouble while on vacation. If the target calls back, the scammer will claim to be the grandchild's lawyer and request gift cards or money orders to bail the grandchild out of jail or pay a fine of some kind.

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True.

[ainpie-10]

Did you give them the gift card codes already? If so, that would have been stupid as to why would someone need codes to give gift cards away as gifts. I’m assythat would have set off even more alarm bells then a priest just emailing you out of the blue for gift cards. Your only recourse if you did not send the codes out would be to try to stop shipment. Now, I’m not here to judge, but why would you not think to talk with him beforehand? Why would you think your priest would ask you to do this without ever even talking with him about any of this? Always assume ANY phone call or ANY email is a scam. There’s really nothing you can do if you can’t stop shipment and if you did give out the codes you’re out of luck.