eBay

Urban Legends Reference Pages: Inboxer Rebellion (eBay)

eBay

Claim: Your eBay account has been suspended “due to credit card verification problems.”

Status: False.

Example: [Collected on the Internet, 2004]

home \| services \| site map \| help

Dear Sir or Madam,

eBay Account Management regrets to inform you that your eBay
account has been suspended due to credit card verification problems.
Your credit card failed to authorize and as a result, your account
has been flagged. All further transactions with your account will be
denied until this flag is removed.

Please take a moment to confirm your
account by going to the following address: eBay.comIf the link
doesn’t work by some reason use an alternative link here – www2.ebay.com and
fill in credit card data as well as ebay username and password right
in the contact form.

Trully your, eBay account management team.P.S. If you
have any questions or feel that this message has been delivered to
you by a mistake please send your complaints to these emails: cumbajohnny@mailvault.com
, sales@onlineniccom, feedback@onlinenic.com
If you urgently need some help
regarding this message you may call
here:+1.415-665-6387 OR send fax to
+1.415-665-7168The message was sent by
ShadowCrew.com mail system in favour to
eBay.com.

Origins: Despite surface appearances, this message isn’t a phishing expedition designed to trick recipients into disclosing sensitive personal information (like a previous eBay-imitating scam). It’s just another joe job intended to stir up trouble for the Shadowcrew web site.

The links embedded in this message are transparently bogus. The first one leads to the Shadowcrew site itself, the second points to the web site of Concentric (an ISP), while the e-mail links correspond to the addresses of the registrant and registrar for the shadowcrew.com domain. (Likewise, the phone numbers given belong to OnlineNIC, the domain’s registrar.)

In case the tomfoolery wasn’t already obvious, the message’s final line makes it explicit: “The message was sent by ShadowCrew.com mail system in favour to eBay.com.”

Last updated: 4 February 2004