eBay sellers: Don't fall for this "Ask Seller a Question" scam. I have gotten two of these in just the last few days. It goes something like this..you get a question from a supposed interested buyer saying they want to buy it as a present but want to confirm the style is what the friend wants, and can you check this url that will show you a photo of it?
The url is a tinyurl, or shortened url, so you can't see the domain name you are going to. Then it leads to a downloadable file that is malicious. If you download and execute this file you are going to mess up your computer. The one I got let to a file with a .cpl extension. (In some cases the browser automatically downloads it for you, but fortunately the browser I use caught the file as suspicious and asked if I wanted to discard it, which I did).
Here's the email I got with the name and part of the url blacked out:
---
From: m*********
To: juliawww
Subject: m*********** has sent a question about item #2*********, ending on Oct-11-09
A*********************************
Sent Date: Oct-05-09 13:24:13 PDT
Dear juliawww,
Hello,
I want to purchase this item as a birthday present for a family
member. I think it's the style they are looking for but I'm not
100% sure. Can you open up the pic in the link and confirm?
Please get back to me asap so I can know If I'll go through with
the purchase or not. Here's the link
http://tinyurl.com/*******
Thanks,
- m***********
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The user id is fake..in the case I checked, the user ID showed up as "private" so I couldn't get any info. I'm not going to delve into that one for now.
But, the main point is, if you get one of these questions, ignore it and report it!
