Email Scam - eBay Security Measures Scam
reported & distributed on
28th October 2003

This email scam was reported and in distribution from 28th October 2003 and we also have an image of the email . These are just image snapshots of the originals, so there is absolutely no code included and none of the links or buttons will now work. The images shown here have been reduced to 80% of the original size

Here we have yet another eBay email scam which consists of an email which suggests that eBay are conducting 'regular maintenance of security measures' and contains a web form for you to provide information so that your account can be updated.

The undescerning eye may well look over the very small anomolies in this email such as the use of the word 'unnormally' (surely they mean 'abnormally'!?) and of-course, an examination of the header would show that the email had passed through mail servers other than eBay's own. These email scams very often repeat themselves over time as well (what was in distribution last month may re-appear this month).

In fact, unless you are savvy with email scams, you could hardly be criticised for believing the email to be genuine. The problem is that it is too easy to create hoax emails like this and all too easy to fall for the scam. The prupose of the email scam is purely to gain control of your eBay and email accounts with the obvious purpose of using it to commit online fraud.

You may hear much about the importance of email headers - well they are important, but also sometimes difficult for the average computer user to interpret or understand. As discussed in our article on Online Identity Theft involving hoax email scams, almost an entire email header can be forged or spoofed and text, graphics and links 'robbed' from genuine sites, BUT it is possible to see that an email has NOT come from the people that it purports to by examining the header data.

Despite the hidden elements that prove it to be a hoax, tracing the perpetrators of these email scams can be even harder. It is possible, for instance, to relay email through more than one open SMTP server (i.e. those that do not require user authentication to send email through) and also through anonymous mail clients and remailers by which point the true origin is completely lost. Please take a moment to read our article and always be suspicious of any email which asks you to provide user, bank or credit card data.

The Hoax Email...

The email seems genuine, and even includes eBays own graphics...