Just a heads up, I recently received a scam email, pretending to be from eBay. At first it looked legit, but there were two things that gave it away. First of all, I searched for the item number in question and found nothing. I did find it funny, however, that related searches included one for "unpaid item strike" lol. Obviously others have been hit with this same email.

Most importantly though, the links in the email appeared to be eBay links at first glance, but after a closer look, I found that they were NOT eBay at all.

The link looked like this: (I edited the actual domain to prevent this link from actually working. You can see the domain in bold below though. The signin.ebay.com. before the domain is just a subdomain, and a bad attempt to trick unsuspecting eBay users. Also, interestingly enough, the text immediately following the domain is /e8ay, and not eBay. Anyway, here it is:

signin.ebay.com.$$$EDITED$$$.info/e8ayISAPI.php?SignIn&ssPageName=h:h:sin:US

And here's the email. Links have been deleted to prevent further benefit to this scammer.

Hey I got one of those too!
There is also a new one where they claim to be the winning bidder and they are haveing trouble with the checkout part of your auction...If you are not selling anything at the time don't reply..

Send it straight to Spoof@eBay.com!!!

I get atleast 3 or more a week.

here is the one I got today

>From: eBay
>Reply-To: eBay
>To: (removed my email)
>Subject: Please pay your eBay fees today
>Date: Fri, 14 Jul 2006 13:01:44 +0200
>
>
>
>
>eBay Unpaid Item Reminder: #7419178249
>
>
>eBay sent this message to your email.
>
>Your registered name is included to show this message originated from
eBay.

>
>
>EBay Account ID: ***********
>
>Card: MSC XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-9311 (Not my card #)
>
>Outstanding Payment Due: $1.75
>

>
>Dear eBay Member:((((Tip off that this is fake))))
>>
>
>We are writing to alert you that your monthly eBay seller fees have not

>been paid because your credit/debit card declined eBay's 2nd attempt to

>automatically deduct the amount due. Please contact your card issuer
for
>more information regarding the cause of the decline.
>
> If your account becomes past due, it will be blocked from additional
bids
>or listings.
>
>
>Please note that this notice may not reflect payments made within the
past
>5 business days. If your balance is $0.00 or you have recently made a
>payment, please disregard this message.
>
>
>Your payment is due by your next invoice date. Please follow these
steps to
>make a payment:
>
>
>1. Respond to this notification (Go to the eBay Home page).
>
>2. Click My eBay at the top of the page, and sign in with your eBay
User ID
>and password.
>
>3. Click the "Seller Account" link (beneath My Account in the left
>navigation menu).
>
>4. Follow the instructions for making a payment.
>
>
>As a reminder, past due accounts may be restricted from buying or
selling
>until payment is received.
>
>
>Say goodbye to credit card finance charges by signing up for Direct
Pay,
>the easiest way to pay your eBay seller fees To sign up, go to
>www.ebay.com, click My eBay at the top of the page, sign in with your
eBay
>User ID and password, click the "Seller Account" link (beneath My
Account
>in the left navigation menu) and follow the instructions for updating
your
>payment method.
>
>Regards,
>
>eBay Inc.
>
>
>This administrative email was sent from eBay, based on your account at
>www.ebay.com.
>
>As outlined in our User Agreement, eBay will periodically send you
>information about site changes & enhancements. Visit our
>Privacy Policy and User Agreement if you have any questions.
>
>Copyright © 2006 eBay Inc. All Rights Reserved. Designated trademarks
and
>brands are the property of their respective owners.
> eBay and the eBay logo are trademarks of eBay Inc. eBay is located at

>2145 Hamilton Avenue, San Jose, CA 95125.
>
__________________________________________________ _______________
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And here is eBays response to it

Hello,

Thank you for writing to eBay regarding the email you received.

Emails such as this, commonly referred to as "spoof" or "phished"
messages, are sent in an attempt to collect sensitive personal or
financial information from the recipients.

The email you reported was not sent by eBay. We have reported this email
to the appropriate authorities.

So what did we learn?

eBay could fix this problem by addressing the issue when people signed up. Have every member go through a basic 3 or 4 question quiz that they have to get 100% right before continuing, and give them unlimited tries.

Basically, let them watch a video that shows how people could try to hijack their account, and then make sure they paid attention by giving them the small quiz.

Problem with that is that it would make the internet newbies wary of using eBay, and scared that they could end up a victim of fraud. The same people that get scared by this are the same people who will end up entering their information in fake eBay emails, because they don't know any better.

It's a catch 22, but I think informing new members somehow is the first way to stop these problems. Thousands of accounts are stolen every day.

I have personally sent $500 to someone selling items on a stolen account, and I never received the items. The guy had several thousand positive feedbacks, and 100% positive in total. Why should I suspect any problems? Well, a month later, he had several hundred negatives, and several hundred $500 checks.

Seems like the whole eBay feedback system is useless if eBay isn't doing something to help educate the uneducated when it comes to account theft.