eBay phishing and account hijacking still alive and well
I just realized I have not taken a look at our scammer who specializes in hijacking eBay seller ID’s with 100% feedback and then posts fake auctions on eBay site, so unsuspecting eBay buyers would send him hard earned dollars and receive northing but a callous email from eBay that they fell for a scam. We check on this eBay scammer about once a month for past 3 years to see if eBay fortified it’s security to protect unsuspecting victims who think buying on eBay from 100% feedback seller is safe. Every time we check, this scammer has active auctions on hijacked seller accounts, as documented here hundreds of times.
So what do you think? Did we find him today? You Bet we did!
Right now he has hijacked two different sellers and posted identical auctions with the identical image:
Here is a screenshot of some of the auctions with 3 hours to go (so much for eBay’s clain they locate and take down these scam auctions quickly). Naturally these auctions show the scammer’s trademark image email inserted to the auction, urging eBay buyers to contact the scammer to a disposable email address wesleyjr12@gmail.com .
The hijacked seller is Seller: nadpnutt79 (16) Feedback: 100 % Positive and the fake scam auction screenshot is here.
The other hijacked eBay seller is nshiraef ( 7 ) Feedback: 100 % Positive and the fake scam auctions screenshot is here.
One thing, this scammer opened up a new photo album with his scam images, the new album is here. His old album we have located over a year ago was just deleted.
Shame on you eBay! It is so very easy to locate these account hijackers and scammers : we can do it any day and any time with NO TOOLS, no special access to any security databases and you with 2,000 employees in Trust and Safety Department are so indifferent to buyers getting scammed on your site, you let this fraud flourish on your site for years.
Incompetence and Greed. (of eBay management is just astounding).
To this I just have one more comment. Remember we published back in April an important message from eBay security Chief anouncing that eBay is now taking note of computer ID that seller normally uses to list their items. Should the computer used change, a Seller will be required to go through additional phone verification to assure the seller has not been hijacked. The data gathering was to take place till June and as of June the new seller hijack protection was to take place. Well? How does our eBay scammer / hijacker continue to successfully publish fake auctions on hijacked seller accounts? Obviously eBay botched this up and whatever they put in place is being easily bypassed by even most amateurish eBay hackers.
Evidence is clear: do not trust eBay management. eBay site is not safe.
This blog actually saved me from making a purchase from wesleyjr12. The person has also hacked or started another ebay account under the seller name: cathyou2008.
Comment by Sarah — September 9, 2008 @ 7:06 am
Hi Sarah, good to hear this was useful. Unfortunately eBay has let this scammer publish fake auctions on it’s site for many many years now. He hijacks seller account and publishes the same auctions on several hijacked accounts daily! eBay would not care if you lost your money, it would have not cost them anything (so they think). They do not realize that buyers who get burned like this on eBay site will never trust eBay again and will shop on sites that are safe, such as Amazon. So eBay does lose business by not paying attention to fraud, their management is just too dumb to put one and one together. They rather have you ripped off and pretend / advertise their site is safe. That is why this blog exists, so we can warn unsuspecting eBay victims eBay is not safe.
Comment by admin — September 10, 2008 @ 8:55 am
Are customers still falling for these scams? You betcha! Here is an article published right after this was written on Sept. 13th accounting a $14,000 loss by a victim of eBay fraud.
Scam on eBay costs Sioux Falls man $14,000
Associated Press - September 13, 2008 6:15 AM ET
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) - A Sioux Falls man says an eBay scam relieved him of $14,000.
According to police Lieutenant Dan Kaiser, the 52-year-old man said he agreed to buy a 1969 1969 Mach One Mustang from a seller in Florida. He says the man wired the seller $14,000 when the seller sent him an e-mail purported to contain eBay documents.
“He never got the car delivered or any further contact” with the seller, Kaiser said.
When the man contacted eBay, he was told the e-mail was a fraud - and learned later that the bank where he sent the money is in Croatia.
http://www.kcautv.com/Global/story.asp?S=9002661&nav=1kgl
Comment by admin — September 19, 2008 @ 5:59 am
Thanksgiving occurs just a little later-on this week. And meanwhile back in cyberspace this same hijacking scammer was stopped 48 hrs ago (Saturday, 11.22.08) when he attempted to foist a pair of Alienware m17x’s and some DJ goods, other items on eBay. He’s struck again today with the same name, same game. Still lame. Who to blame? In both cases eBay removed his garbage ‘phantom’ auctions. Still, someone or several could have been ‘had’ way too easily. It just shows to go you, I suppose. Am thankful for lots o’ stuff and in particular the where withal to report these desperate measures by desperate folks in desperate times. Coda: over the past 60 - 90 days we’ve been looking for a Dell XPS m1730 2.8GHz, 4GB or the above noted Alienware. By default, not entirely by design we’ve reported 11, 12 or 13 ‘phantom’ scammers to eBay. It’s become a part-time job and we’re still nowhere near our goal of securing one of those baby’s at the right time for the right price. Refurb, open-box special or not, it’s back to square one I suppose. Thanks for the forum. TTFN.
Comment by PM — November 24, 2008 @ 4:31 pm
Thanks for the post. You just saved me $1400! wesleyjr12@gmail.com hijacked another account today and I almost fell for it.
Comment by Bob — November 24, 2008 @ 7:10 pm
ebay must not be too smart. same email address used again on 11-22-2008
2 sellers hacked at once
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8_AF2biepI
Comment by anonymous — November 28, 2008 @ 9:32 pm
Here is a video cappnonymous did on him!
http://www.firejohndonahoe.com/2008/12/06/ebay-scammers-busy-during-christmas-season/
eBay should clean up their data dump!
I’m sure they could block common scammer countries like Romania and others at their core router.
Comment by Doc — December 6, 2008 @ 2:40 pm
Well, I just ran into wesleyjr12@gmail.com
I did respond to the email with my ebay name. I began to get suspicious about the fact that the seller just doesn’t sell computers and the email address is a pict not a link.
How vulnerable have I now become not that he has this information?
And what can I do to protect myself?
thanks
Comment by Laura — January 30, 2009 @ 1:57 am
the wesleyjr12 ripped off one more ebay user:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&item=220351855365
When I realized that it was a fake, it was too late to contact anyone.
Comment by Jonathan — January 30, 2009 @ 11:57 am
Thanks!!! Looks like he’s up there again selling a macbook pro. Glad I decided to google the email address…
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&item=110345124690
D
Comment by David — January 31, 2009 @ 5:20 pm
He is still at it as of Feb 25, 2009. He is nimble and removed the post after one day - I cannot find it any more. I knew the offering looked a little odd. Here is his response to my query:
“I live in orlando but currently I am with work in UK, London for the next approximately 7 months.
Anyway, there shouldn’t be any problem, because I am using MoneyBookers services so I can sell the bike without difficulty.
I left the bike at their warehouse before leaving to the UK. They will take care of the delivery. There’s a 14 days return policy so you will have the chance to test, inspect and ride it before final decision.
So if you want to purchase it, let me know and I will explain you how MoneyBookers works and how we can move forward.”
E-bay should do better…
Comment by Mark — February 26, 2009 @ 2:51 pm
Unfortunately I was a victim of wesleyjr12@gmail.com. I sent $1200 to Michael Green in the united kingdom. I have reported the fraud to Western Union. They said they will supply information about the money pickup in UK to the local Authorities there. Hopefully they have a security camera in the Western Union Agent in UK and can at least try to stop this person from hurting more people in the future. This sounds like a very clever organization. My interaction seemed so personal and genuine. All the time I was dealing with a very clever liar. The thing that is amazing to me is that they use the exact same email. Can’t gmail close their account and at least force them to use a different email?
Comment by Peter Schwitz — March 31, 2009 @ 8:09 am
It’s funny that you seem to think all the account take overs on eBay are by the same person.
That’s really dumb.
Comment by Menyon — May 7, 2009 @ 1:49 am