Ebay Scammers

[HagiaSophia]

INTERNET fraudsters are targeting thousands of shoppers on the internet auction site eBay with two highly effective con- tricks, police warned yesterday.

Officers are particularly concerned about a new technique in which bidders who have failed to secure an item for sale on the eBay website are offered a bogus “second chance offer” in which they are invited to make a private deal outside the eBay website, which ultimately turns sour.

Police also highlighted the better known “phishing” scam, in which people are tricked into sending their credit card details to a fake website.

The warning - from Fife Police after a spate of reports from their area - was backed by eBay, which urged shoppers to follow the website’s instructions carefully and refuse to make any deals “off eBay”.

Inspector Alex Harkness said the public had to be vigilant of the “very worrying” trend. “The people who are committing these crimes are very professional,” said Insp Harkness. "They create websites with links that appear to be connected with the genuine sites. People are then conned into passing over credit card or bank details and money is then stolen from them.
“My advice would be never to send credit card details as a result of an email request. No authentic company or bank will ever ask you to send personal details by this method, but will ask you to log on to the secure section of their site using your recognised passwords.”

thescotsman.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=331102005

 

[Norwich]

I suspect there is more than one way to scam. I received a very strange phone call today on my mobile supposedly from “Orange” (my network supplier) saying they were carrying out a reception survey and asking for my Post Code. Something about the background noise and the callers accent alerted me and I refused at which point the caller hung up very quickly.

Now lets put together two unrelated facts.

1. In the UK you can now trace the whereabouts of a mobile phone through certain companies that offer that service, i.e. it’s a good possibility that wherever my phone is there I will also be!!
2. A post Code, particularly in a City environment usually covers no more than two or three property’s and lots of computer programmes can give you the property address of a Post Code.

Now we have the possibility of someone knowing where I am at any particular time AND where I live. Nasty combination I would suggest.

On the plus side if they did try anything I would suggest they would have major difficulties, my dog is a first cross between a Labrador and a Bull Mastiff (honest) and he’s built like a brick outhouse. He’s got the sort of bark that say’s, “if your a burglar it’s probably safer next door”. We did have an attempted break in 1.30 in the morning a few months ago. We guess the dog stood on the window ledge eyeball to eyball with the idiot trying to open the window, and let fly. The skid marks on the drive outside from his shoes showed how quickly he went backwards, probably bashed his head on the fence opposite as well. Don’t think he’s coming back somehow!!!