"-exray" wrote in message
...
Lou wrote:


IF you are suspicious about any e-mail stating it is from E-Bay, then you
can send it to and they will check it and let you know if
it is legit or not. IF it is not legit, you'll know pretty quick. IF it
IS legit, they'll tell you that too, and what to do about it.

I've never heard anything about them checking and telling you if it is
legit. You can send a blank email to that address and get the standard
"Its not us" blurb. That pretty much says that ANY email saying its from
them - isn't.

-BM

Reply to the sender then, see what "they" tell you! That could be an
interesting experience. No one has ever said what happens when that was
done, with the exception of those who were less fortunate enough to actually
send their info to be processed. But then we don't hear them say they gave
the info, they cry the blues, they got screwed. Write the "sender" of those
messages and report back. Maybe the system isn't perfect, but then if one is
dumb enough or let's be polite and say not educated enough in the ways of
the internet to know when they're being screwed or not, then even the catch
all response won't really matter either. BUT it will at least say - it
wasn't from E-Bay - which can then "hopefully" equate in that person's mind
as "be careful". It doesn't take much to catch those unsuspecting - off
guard. If a person is not up on the things that can happen on here,
"nothing" will save that person from being screwed - I don't care how bright
they "think" they are or how dumb they actually may be. With some people,
unfortunately, "nothing" clicks. You can sit here and preach to them all day
on what not to do, and damned if they don't do the opposite. Like a child,
you tell them not to touch the hot stove, they do it anyway, to see what
happens. People often have to learn the hard way. Instructions - simple or
complex - just don't always work with "ALL" people. No, the system is "not"
perfect. But until it is, we can only guide them to work "with" it in it's
present form - dumb as that may be. I am not aware of anyone sending a blank
email to spoof at e-bay, so I can't say what the reply would be. I think
I'll try it just for the hell of it. Have "you" tried it to back up your
statement? Just curious!

TRM.

"OH YEAH" a écrit dans le message

THIS is what you get when you send a "BLANK" page to E-Bay as stated by
BM -
above. Try it yourself. You'll see. So much for that theory.
************************************************** **********************

This message is new. Now they request that any email you send them
is a "forward" of the suspicious email you received. Try it, "forward" them
anything
and you will get the "canned" reply.

Syl

OH YEAH wrote:


WHAT? It appears you're quoting ME in your replies. This thread started with
someone talking about e-mails "appearing" to be from E-Bay - being received.
Others responded with how to perhaps deal with it. I jumped in to say that
if one gets a suspicious e-mail THOUGHT to be from E-Bay, they send it to
..... Someone suggested that - that doesn't work, that a blank
e-mail would get the same reply. I proved that wrong and posted the result
of doing just that. I offered others to try it for themselves.

Whoa, I did repeat said test and yes they have changed the format. As
Syl said, now it apparently only accepts forwarded mail. Well, I
blanked out a forward message and sent it Sunday afternoon. I got the
initial canned response immediately and the canned "answer" came thru
yesterday evening.

Guess what. They said it wasn't from them. Go figure.

I wonder if anybody has received one that said is WAS FROM EBAY? I
don't think so. The point I was trying to disprove was your assertion
that they will inspect these requests and inform you of the results as
if some of these emails were valid. In a way they do just that but I
don't think there's as much inspection going on as simply hitting the
canned "its not us" button.

Don't get me wrong, I have no gripe with ebay and have a combined
feedback rating of 800 or so. By suggesting that some of these emails
merit inspection might lead one to think that some requests for acct
info are legit which is simply not the case.

-BillM

"-exray" wrote in message
...
OH YEAH wrote:


WHAT? It appears you're quoting ME in your replies. This thread started
with someone talking about e-mails "appearing" to be from E-Bay - being
received. Others responded with how to perhaps deal with it. I jumped in
to say that if one gets a suspicious e-mail THOUGHT to be from E-Bay,
they send it to ..... Someone suggested that - that doesn't
work, that a blank e-mail would get the same reply. I proved that wrong
and posted the result of doing just that. I offered others to try it for
themselves.

Whoa, I did repeat said test and yes they have changed the format. As Syl
said, now it apparently only accepts forwarded mail. Well, I blanked out
a forward message and sent it Sunday afternoon. I got the initial canned
response immediately and the canned "answer" came thru yesterday evening.

Guess what. They said it wasn't from them. Go figure.

I wonder if anybody has received one that said is WAS FROM EBAY? I don't
think so. The point I was trying to disprove was your assertion that they
will inspect these requests and inform you of the results as if some of
these emails were valid. In a way they do just that but I don't think
there's as much inspection going on as simply hitting the canned "its not
us" button.

Don't get me wrong, I have no gripe with ebay and have a combined feedback
rating of 800 or so. By suggesting that some of these emails merit
inspection might lead one to think that some requests for acct info are
legit which is simply not the case.

-BillM

Bill,

"I" am not trying to argue with you. The fact they just changed formats,
well.... if they did it again today, it would still make fools of us both
for arguing about what "was". Yes, when I tried it I got the response
shown, which did prove you wrong - TO A POINT - but not entirely. It still
doesn't mean they do "scrutinize" ALL e-mails. Maybe some. I will agree, to
a point it is canned. . I'm not saying you are completely wrong or I'm
completely correct.. The system isn't the greatest, we can both agree on
that. But it is all they offer! So, we deal with it.

But what I think is even more hilarious is my statement to you of replying
to the spoof sender to see their response, and someone else feels I'd be
harassing them by doing so - were it to be done. Man, I laughed my ass off
on that.

TRM

"OH YEAH" a écrit dans le message

But what I think is even more hilarious is my statement to you of replying
to the spoof sender to see their response, and someone else feels I'd be
harassing them by doing so - were it to be done. Man, I laughed my ass off
on that.

That would be our village idiot...

Syl

"Syl's Old Radioz" wrote in message
...
"OH YEAH" a écrit dans le message

But what I think is even more hilarious is my statement to you of
replying
to the spoof sender to see their response, and someone else feels I'd be
harassing them by doing so - were it to be done. Man, I laughed my ass
off
on that.

That would be our village idiot...

Syl



Well, whoever it was, it sure was funny!!!!!!!!

TRM

OH YEAH wrote:

shown, which did prove you wrong - TO A POINT - but not entirely. It still
doesn't mean they do "scrutinize" ALL e-mails. Maybe some. I will agree, to
a point it is canned. . I'm not saying you are completely wrong or I'm
completely correct.. The system isn't the greatest, we can both agree on
that. But it is all they offer! So, we deal with it.

Well clearly they want the things reported to them so they can get the
header info and have the bogus sites shut down as rapidly as possible.
And they seem to do a good job of that. I wonder what kind of SWAT team
they have that can get a page pulled on a server in Romania within
hours? Maybe we should send THEM after Osama!

Its still disingenuous and misleading for me, you, them or anybody else
to suggest that the answer might be anything other "its not from us".
Next thing ya know the phishers will start sending out bogus replies
saying "yes, that was us, please log in and give us your info".

Some people have a hard time understanding the level of fraud that
exists on the internet. I knew a lady on another forum who got bitten
TWICE with those phony Microsoft emails that told you to delete such and
such file. When she got chastised for doing it the second time her
response was "Why would Microsoft send me phony emails?". She just
didn't get it. I guess ebay has an overdose of that mentality around
which they have to tailor their procedures.

-Bill

On Tue, 26 Oct 2004 20:26:17 -0600, -exray
wrote:

OH YEAH wrote:

shown, which did prove you wrong - TO A POINT - but not entirely. It still
doesn't mean they do "scrutinize" ALL e-mails. Maybe some. I will agree, to
a point it is canned. . I'm not saying you are completely wrong or I'm
completely correct.. The system isn't the greatest, we can both agree on
that. But it is all they offer! So, we deal with it.

Well clearly they want the things reported to them so they can get the
header info and have the bogus sites shut down as rapidly as possible.

Not really. It depends mainly on the integrity of the site hosting
the problem. A forward of the problem post/e-mail *with headers* to a
good ISP will cause them to check. If they come up with anything that
user is gone.

And they seem to do a good job of that. I wonder what kind of SWAT team
they have that can get a page pulled on a server in Romania within
hours? Maybe we should send THEM after Osama!

OTOH there are sites stateside and off shore where catching some one
is like pulling teeth or they just move to the server setting beside
the one they were using.


Its still disingenuous and misleading for me, you, them or anybody else
to suggest that the answer might be anything other "its not from us".
Next thing ya know the phishers will start sending out bogus replies
saying "yes, that was us, please log in and give us your info".

Some people have a hard time understanding the level of fraud that

It's more than some people. A recent survey turned up less than 25%
of the users on the net have a firewall. I'd guess it's probably
around 15%. Most have the mentality that it won't happen to me and I
only open attachments from friends and they'd never send me a virus.
They don't realize most viruses come from someone who had them in
their address book.

exists on the internet. I knew a lady on another forum who got bitten
TWICE with those phony Microsoft emails that told you to delete such and
such file. When she got chastised for doing it the second time her
response was "Why would Microsoft send me phony emails?". She just
didn't get it. I guess ebay has an overdose of that mentality around
which they have to tailor their procedures.

I'm not going to say the average user, but rather most users are
completely clueless about computers, the Internet, viruses and scams.
They have to be or I wouldn't be winning some lottery or another at
least 4 or 5 times a week and being contacted by some guys widow, his
estate's law firm, or some government official to get help moving many
millions of dollars out of their country.

When I was in Grad School I taught 5 classes at the university level
as a GA. They were "The Introduction to Computer Science". I had 195
students and their level of computer literacy was scary. I had one
genius who picked up another students floppy disk which had her home
work on it. He turned it in as his own without ever even changing the
name. Of course he claimed it was an accident and the disks must have
gotten mixed up, but as he sat between me and my boss (head of the
department) I've never seen a kid sweat that much. We should have put
a drip pan under him.

Although that was in 91, things haven't changed all that much.
Computer science was involved in virtually every class at that point.

One other note. I wrote a rather elaborate database search program
that from the user end was strictly a "click on what you wanted to do
and "fill-in-the-blanks". Still, it took days to train 6 people how
to use it and it was the same questions, over and over for a full
week. The next year I had a "trainer" to teach the same people. :-))

People tend to fall into three camps. Those who have at least an idea
as to what is going on, those who place blind faith in the computer's
ability to do what ever with out fault, and those who are intimidated
by them.

Roger Halstead (K8RI & ARRL life member)
(N833R, S# CD-2 Worlds oldest Debonair)
www.rogerhalstead.com

-Bill

Roger wrote:

On Tue, 26 Oct 2004 20:26:17 -0600, -exray
wrote:

Well clearly they want the things reported to them so they can get the
header info and have the bogus sites shut down as rapidly as possible.


Not really. It depends mainly on the integrity of the site hosting
the problem. A forward of the problem post/e-mail *with headers* to a
good ISP will cause them to check. If they come up with anything that
user is gone.

"Not really"? Are we disagreeing about something?


OTOH there are sites stateside and off shore where catching some one
is like pulling teeth or they just move to the server setting beside
the one they were using.

They may move on, most spammers do, and often its a case of hijacking a
server so he as an individual is gone already. What amazes me is how
fast these Romanian (not to pick on Romanians in particular but you get
the gist) websites get closed down. ebay obviously carries some clout.
Maybe they call Donald Rumsfeld first and have him threaten to come
over and look for WMDs. That can get nasty.


I'm not going to say the average user, but rather most users are
completely clueless about computers, the Internet, viruses and scams.

Roger, we are preaching to the choir. These spam and fraud issues are
almost daily subjects (ad nauseum) on any internet forum such as this
one. Hell, these scams get reported on the evening network news. You'd
have to live in a cave...seems that quite a few people do!


-Bill

"-exray" wrote in message
...
OH YEAH wrote:

shown, which did prove you wrong - TO A POINT - but not entirely. It
still doesn't mean they do "scrutinize" ALL e-mails. Maybe some. I will
agree, to a point it is canned. . I'm not saying you are completely wrong
or I'm completely correct.. The system isn't the greatest, we can both
agree on that. But it is all they offer! So, we deal with it.

Well clearly they want the things reported to them so they can get the
header info and have the bogus sites shut down as rapidly as possible. And
they seem to do a good job of that. I wonder what kind of SWAT team they
have that can get a page pulled on a server in Romania within hours?
Maybe we should send THEM after Osama!

Its still disingenuous and misleading for me, you, them or anybody else to
suggest that the answer might be anything other "its not from us". Next
thing ya know the phishers will start sending out bogus replies saying
"yes, that was us, please log in and give us your info".

Some people have a hard time understanding the level of fraud that exists
on the internet. I knew a lady on another forum who got bitten TWICE with
those phony Microsoft emails that told you to delete such and such file.
When she got chastised for doing it the second time her response was "Why
would Microsoft send me phony emails?". She just didn't get it. I guess
ebay has an overdose of that mentality around which they have to tailor
their procedures.

-Bill

Points well taken and I couldn't agree more.

TRM