Is this a legitimate e-mail

[Ed62]

I received an e-mail, supposedly from e-bay. I haven't bought anything from e-bay for probably more than a year. Here's the e-mail I got. Is it legit? I don't like clicking on links that are suspicious.

From: "eBay" <update@ebay2.com> Add to Address Book Add Mobile Alert
Subject: eBay Unpaid Item Strike Received #280235632960
Date: Sat, 12 Jul 2008 17:43:06 -0500
eBay Unpaid Item Strike Received: #280235632960


You have received an Unpaid Item strike.

You were the winning buyer on eBay item #280235632960. The seller, has informed eBay that payment for the item has still not been received, or that the one of you were not able to come to agreement. As a result, you have received an Unpaid Item strike. Remember, Unpaid Item strikes may result in your suspension from eBay.
Remember, Unpaid Item strikes may result in your suspension from eBay.

Review the submitted details regarding the payment This is a link

You can appeal! this Unpaid Item strike if you be



Regards,
The eBay Team




Ed

[Uncle Cracker]

It's bogus. Any legitimate Ebay mailing will address you by your username. This is just another phishing scam. Another thing you can do is log into the Ebay website. Any legitimate mailings will have copies in your message box.

[Ed62]

Thanks for the quick reply. My wife told me she received one of these, and she fell for it. Now I've gotta wonder about our credit card.

Ed

[dkerfoot]

The easiest way to tell is to hold your mouse over the link (don't click!)

Depending on the e-mail program, you can usually see in a pop-up of some sort or in the status bar at the bottom the address of the link. If the address doesn't have ebay immediately before the .com, it is a hoax. They can have something preceding ebay, just not between ebay and .com. So, http://my.ebay.com is legit but http://ebay.someshadysite.com is not!

[dkerfoot]

It's bogus. Any legitimate Ebay mailing will address you by your username. This is just another phishing scam. Another thing you can do is log into the Ebay website. Any legitimate mailings will have copies in your message box.

Yep - a better answer than mine.

[RAFlorida]

Interesting. That number, &quot;280235632960&quot;,

is for a Dell desktop computer. Usually the numbers the scammer place are bogus. When I get email like that, I copy the number and paste it in the legit ebay search bar.

[Tom Slick]

I always go directly to the real website, from my own favorites list and check my account.
If you had anything going on in ebay, it would show up in your account on their website.

[Ed62]

Wow! Thanks for the replies. It is definitely a hoax. The link address does not show ebay.com anywhere in the URL. Although I didn't click on the link, the URL that shows up when I put my mouse over the link says something about updating my account in the URL.

Update: I mis-understood my wife. She didn't get the same thing I got. Her's was a legit problem concerning a buy she made. It's been rectified.

Ed

[crokett]

I love Gmail. I never see any of these phishing scams and can count on the fingers of one hand the # of spam emails I've gotten in my inbox in the last 10 months.

[jonmulzer]

I love Gmail. I never see any of these phishing scams and can count on the fingers of one hand the # of spam emails I've gotten in my inbox in the last 10 months.

Me too! It just works so much better than any other email service, free or paid.

[TB Roye]

Another thing you can do is forward it to Spoof@ebay.com and they will check it an let you know. you can do the same thing with PayPal Spoof@Paypal.com in both cases it goes to their Security department. You will receive an email in return and in your Ebay message box concering this.

Tom

[docrowan]

Not sure if you copied the email accurately into your post, but it looked like some poor grammar and punctuation was used. IMO a geniune email from a large company such as eBay would be form letter that has been revised and edited until it is perfect. Almost all scam email I've ever seen has this kind of problem.

Plus one on the Gmail, too. Works great for me, no spam.

[gary]

IMO a geniune email from a large company such as eBay would be form letter that has been revised and edited until it is perfect.

LOL - I can't help it; my company has moved and outsourced much of it's operation to India and the Philippines. It's really funny the stuff we see and hear.

[Stytooner]

I get these all the time from Ebay, Paypal, Banks I don't even have an account in and most recently people telling me my Gulftel account will be closed if I don't fill in the blanks with my password and account name and such. Gulftel is my ISP and they know what all that is.
That last one was from Indonesia somewhere. What are they trying to do with that info? Spam everybody with my email?

[BobSch]

I always go directly to the real website, from my own favorites list and check my account.
If you had anything going on in ebay, it would show up in your account on their website.

This is good advice no mater what the site. Never click on a supplied link unless you are 100% sure it's legit. Type in the URL for the company itself (whatevercompany.com) and go from there. It's too reasy to fake an email address.