Internet Auction Fraud

Internet auction fraud

SCD6 Economic and Specialist Crime OCU is issuing warnings, as part of
a crime prevention initiative against on Internet auction fraud and
money transfer fraud. Often people, who become the victims of fraud
through on line auction sites, are often persuaded to send the money
fraudulently obtained from them through money transfer service
providers. This section of the fraud alert website aims to provide
advice that hopefully will prevent you from becoming a victim of such
frauds.

Internet auction - basics

Get to know the parameters set by the site - they are in place to
ensure user safety. Read the safety advice provided by the on line
auction site before trading. Never step outside of these or outside of
the site no matter how enticing the deal. Fraudsters will try to trick
you into doing this. Like any popular activity you must ensure you know
‘the rules of the game’ because ‘A little
knowledge is a dangerous thing’.

When looking at an advertised item compare pricing. Beware of people
offering you a deal below the current bid or reserve price, especially
if they are contacting you direct. Remember ‘If an offer
sounds too good to be true it probably is’.

Get to know the seller by looking at their selling history and the
goods they sale. Be extremely careful around the payment method used
for persons selling with little or no selling history.

Don't get carried away in the excitement of winning an auction.
Fraudsters rely on you being over keen and off your guard. It is never
too late to ask questions of a seller to ensure that you are completely
happy with what you are about to pay for. Do not follow through if you
think it is a fraud, report the seller to the site.

Finally, if your site offers ‘second chance’
bidding on an auction verify that any notification of you qualifying
for this ‘opportunity’ actually comes from the site
and not from a fraudster impersonating them. You can do this by
carefully checking the address from which the e-mail is sent or by
contacting the site via its published website (Beware of using any
hyperlinks or numbers attached to such a
‘notification’ as these may also be false).

"Always ask yourself, have I won the item, or have they won their next
victim?"

Internet auction – payment

Buyer:

Never use money transfers as a payment method whenever someone suggests
this to you, even if it is by the seller after you have
‘won’ the auctioned item or when approached to step
outside the on line auction site. There is little security in this, no
matter what the seller says, and you are effectively sending your hard
earned cash to a stranger ‘on trust’ alone. See our
Money transfer pages for further information.

Being extremely careful around direct banking transactions to pay for
goods. There is still little security in this area also, which
increases if the seller has no or little trading history with the on
line auction site you are using. You are still effectively still
sending your hard earned cash to a stranger ‘on
trust’ alone. There have been instances where people have
sent money to bank accounts and not received the goods. This has been
more prevalent when dealing with people with no or little trading
history on the auction site as a seller.

Use on the online payment options or a reputable ESCROW account to pay
for items. ESCROW is a payment system where both buyer and
seller’s financial details are held separately and in
isolation by a legitimate third party company acting as
‘middleman’. The buyer makes their payment into the
Escrow account. The payment is only made to the seller the goods have
arrived and been deemed satisfactory by the buyer. By doing so your
transactions will be better protected and often insured. Never enter an
Escrow account site through a link in an email sent to you by anyone,
as it has not been unknown for fraudsters to set up fake Escrow
websites. Use a search engine to locate the website or enter your
chosen Escrow site through it’s proper web address. Always
check the url shown in your web browser address bar.

Seller:

When a cheque is accepted for payment, please be aware that although
your bank or building society may after three days state that it has
'cleared', this only means that the money has passed between the banks.
You remain liable if the cheque that you have paid into your account is
forged or stolen, this may not come to light until the cheque is
received by the other bank or the bank account holder queries a
transaction on their account. This may take longer than you anticipate.
The money is then taken back from you account so you lose not only the
items that you have shipped to the 'Buyer' but also the money that the
buyer 'paid' for the goods.

A common trick that fraudsters use is known as 'Criminal Cash Back'
where a seller accepts a cheque for an amount higher than the value of
the transaction, often to pay a 'shipping charge' to the buyers
'shipping agent'. This is actually paid to another fraudster who
receives 'clean' money from you. You then find out at a later stage
that although the cheque paid to you has 'cleared', it is a stolen or
forged cheque, and you must pay the money back to your bank with no
hope of getting the money back from the bogus 'shipping agent'. See out
pages on Criminal Cashback pages for further information.

Internet auction – account security

Protect your on line auction account details as you would your own bank
account, whether it be your actual log in details and password to your
auction account or your payment account. Do not become a victim of
identity theft by revealing your name or account details. By aware of
phishing emails that purport to come from the on line auction or
payment site you are registered with, asking you to update your account
or re-enter your details because your account has be suspended. To see
two examples of a phishing emails purporting to be sent by on line
auction site Ebay, click on the link to example 1 and example 2.

There are a number of factors that will indicate this is a phishing
attack. In example 1 the following:

1. The email address, From: eBay Administration [admin@ebayz.com]
whilst looking like a genuine one from ebay is not correct as it reads
@ebayz.com instead of @ebay.com

2. Often these emails will contain links that sometimes take you to
pages on the genuine website to give it an appearance of being genuine.
But they also can take you to fake pages set up to represent the
genuine website.

3. The link to up date your records
http://cgi1.ebay.com/aw-cgi/ebayISAPI.dll?Update, whilst looking
genuine will take you a fake website, in this case
http://johtnanx.com.phtemp.com/eb/. Always check the url shown in your
web browser bar.


Always enter your on line auction or payment site through
it’s proper web address. Save this in your favourites. Never
be tempted to enter it through a link sent to you, especially in an
email, as it might lead you to a fake site and disclosure of your
personal information. If your on line auction or payment site provides
a toolbar down load that will advise you when you are on the genuine
site, consider using this.


Who to contact

If you believe you might be being set up as a target for fraud or have
been a victim of this type of fraud and need advice contact your local
police station. If you are a resident in Greater London area this link
will provide details of your local police station. If you are resident
outside the London area, the following link will provide you with
details of your local force website from which you can obtain details
of your local police station.

If you think you have information that might prevent or provide
intelligence on this type of crime, or you become the potential victim
of another type of fraud that we are not aware please advise the Fraud
Alert team by e-mail. Please note that we will not specifically respond
to emails, unless we have a need to clarify or seek further information
from the sender. This is due to the large number of emails we receive
daily and we hope that you appreciate the demands this places on the
team.