With my Overlapping Cube auction just finished I received an email from Reeeech. He has now received 2 fake second chance offers from the "seller" of the Overlapping Cube. The first has the seller as WT.TOYSGAMES@GMAIL.COM. The most suspicious part (apart from not being me) is where it says that Reeeech is obligated to contact the seller even if he choses to decline. In the 2nd email it has me as the seller but gives my email address as bplsntn@aol.com which is incorrect. Naturally I have reported this to ebay and sent emails to the addresses advising them to take their fraudulant behaviour elsewhere.

Yes, unfortunately those emails got my hopes up

Whatever happens, hopefully the puzzle will go to a good home.

I think 99 % of second chance offers are legit. I guess however you should insure the offer comes from the seller. You could do this by independantly contacting him through ebay to check the offer is genuine.
BTW to those it concerns, Skibur is an honest and trustworthy person I have dealt with many times in the past.

It seems that your puzzle got some unwanted attention by criminals.
They always seem to lurk near deals with lots of money.

Simply sickening...

By the way, do those criminals use some other ebay nicknames?




Peter

WOW I find it amazing, sickening and a little funny that there are people out there that want to try and rip people off on rubik's cubes!!! Has the world gone mad! I know there are a few people that dislike eBay but overall I think it is great and I have seen the interest in puzzles grow through eBay and the internet. I have bought some good stuff on second chance offers but I always check it out properly.

I'm betting there's some script that goes through and finds high price items and sends out fake offer to the non-winners.

I now know that the 2nd and 4th placed bidders received the emails making the fake second chance offer. Some how the person had obtained their email addresses. I do not think the 3rd placed bidder got the offer. The messages were not sent through ebay itself so I am pretty sure there has been no identity theft or infiltration. Since they did not come through ebay there was no username. The first email as mentioned above is from an address which includes "toysgames" so someone spent time setting this up. If everyone strictly followed ebay rules then this would have no chance of working. However I like many others am happy to deal outside ebay with people I trust. I have reported it to ebay but they just sent confirmation that the emails never came from them and their standard advice on fraud. Does anybody know where else I should report this?

Someone had to take the time to do all this, no? I mean if it didn't come from eBay, how in the hell did they get that type of account? - with the eBay name and all.

Plus - how would this person scam someone? I mean, how would s/he go about getting the money, s/he is trying to scam out of us?

Hmm, Tony, I'd check out your info as well. If that person is posing as you - there maybe more behind this than meets the eye? I would double check your info, accounts, etc. Make sure they haven't been tampered with.

EDIT: OMG!!!! I did a search on one of the names used that was sent from this email: bplsntn@aol.com

One of the first pages that comes up is this - noting many of the scam artists emails/addy's.

http://www.freespaces.com/scamfinders/emails.htm

Edit Two: another - referring to this email used in Massive Spamming!

http://www.jpomail.com/


(Mods - if these links somehow cause unwanted traffic - please alter them)

Interesting stuff Reeeech. I guess you can get a genuine looking ebay address just by picking something that ebay doesn't already use. In the email you received it had contactmember@secondchanceoffers.com which helped give the illusion it was from ebay. There are millions of other permutations that could also be used.
Actually that email address might even be genuine as you were instructed to contact the seller at WT.TOYSGAMES@GMAIL.COM

Here is one of the actual emails Reeeech received, I have removed his address. I'll remove it if you object Reeeech.


>From: "eBay Member: contactmember@secondchanceoffers.com"
>
>Reply-To: contactmember@secondchanceoffers.com
>To: reeeech (email)
>Subject: eBay Second Chance Offer Program sent you this eBay item: TONY
>FISHER'S OVERLAPPING CUBE (Rubik Cube type puzzle) (#6053416565)
>Date: Mon, 15 May 2006 09:05:47 -0700
>
>-----------------------------------------------------------------
>second.chance.offer.program sent you this eBay item.
>
>Personal message:
>***Second Chance Offer - Buy The Item You Recently Bid On*** Good news !!!
> You expressed interest in an item titled (TONY FISHER'S OVERLAPPING CUBE
>(Rubik Cube type puzzle) Item number: 6053416565) by bidding, however the
>auction has ended with another member as the high bidder. In compliance
>with eBay policy, the seller ( WT.TOYSGAMES@GMAIL.COM ) is making you this
>Second Chance Offer. The
> seller has issued this Second Chance Offer because the winning bidder of
>this auction was unable to complete the transaction.In compliance with eBay
>policy , the seller of this item is making this Second Chance Offer to you
>at your LAST BID PRICE. If you accept this offer, you will be able to
>exchange Feedback with the seller and will be eligible for eBay services
>associated with a transaction, such as fraud protection. To purchase this
>item,contact the seller at ( WT.TOYSGAMES@GMAIL.COM ).To learn more about
>Second Chance Offer go
>to:http://pages.ebay.com/help/sell/personal_offer.html . Please note that
>this is a system generated email.Please do not reply to this email. After
>receiving this offer you are obligated to contact the seller (
>WT.TOYSGAMES@GMAIL.COM ),accept or decline the offer. To take advantage
>of this opportunity, please act quickly !!! Thank you, eBay
>
>View this Item on eBay at
>http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... :B:EF:US:1
>
>-----------------------------------------------------------------
>TONY FISHER'S OVERLAPPING CUBE (Rubik Cube type puzzle)
>I have signed this puzzle
>Item number:6053416565
>-----------------------------------------------------------------
>
>Seller: tonyfisher(14)
>Positive Feedback:100%
>Member since Dec-17-05 in United Kingdom
>Winning bid: GBP 539.00
>(Approximately US $1,019.30)
>
>-----------------------------------------------------------------
>Ended: May-13-06 14:00:00 PDT
>
>Item location: UK
>United KingdomPosts to:Worldwide
>

That's cool Tony. I was debating if anyone else wanted to see the 'email'.

I'm happy to share it and help others on this forum, 'cuz ya'll helped me when i first came here - regarding another site that was selling puzzles....

This is the second email I received:

ebay @aw-confirmation.com

To purchase this item, don't reply to this mail, just contact the seller,

Dear reeeech,
You expressed interest in an item titled "TONY FISHER'S OVERLAPPING CUBE (Rubik Cube type puzzle)"(Item# 6053416565) by bidding, however the auction has ended with another member as the high bidder. In compliance with eBay policy, the seller,tonyfisher (bplsntn@aol.com) <--- this is the fake email i was referring to in the above post--- is making this Second Chance Offer to you at your bid price of GBP 529.00. The seller has issued this Second Chance Offer because he has duplicate items for sale or the winning bidder was unable to complete the transaction. If you accept this offer, you will be able to exchange Feedback with the seller and will be eligible for eBay services associated with a transaction, such as fraud protection.
To learn more about Second Chance Offer go to:
http://pages.ebay.com/help/sell/personal_offer.html

To purchase this item, don't reply to this mail, just contact the seller,

Thank you,
eBay, Inc.

------ In both emails, the layout was in a eBay style frame. It's really close if looked at really quickly.
It's funny too, because there was a link in that email linking to Second Chance Offers that are FRAUD and it list how to tell the difference and such.

also another good reason to actually sign your puzzles. gives it the clearity that is is from you.