A community-based anti-phishing service, PhishTank report revealed that PayPal and eBay are two of the most common brands used in online scams.

The inaugural report – based on the end-user submission of almost 300,000 emails believed to be phishes – shows PayPal and its parent eBay served as the lure in 63,437 verified phishing emails.

PayPal was spoofed in 31,719 emails, while the eBay name was faked in just one fewer email, according to the report from PhishTank. U.K.-based Barclays Bank came in a distant third, with 6,515 verified phishes spoofing the brand. Bank of America (5,727) and Fifth Third Bank (4,191) rounded out the top five.

Source

As you already know, one of the biggest threats to the security of eBay account and identity is fraudulent email and Web sites, i.e. spoof emails and websites. They are used to obtain personal and account information.

Many newbie eBay members fall into the trap of clicking links in emails and entering their account information without realising it is a scam.

You may want to look at these:

1. eBay Spoof Tutorials. Here you can learn more about What is spoof email, How to spot a spoof email, How to spot a fake website, What to do about spoofs and Protecting your account. Take the Spoof Email Tutorial here.

2. eBay Toolbar’s Account Guard. eBay Toolbar Featuring Yahoo! is a free eBay tool you can add to your web browser. You can download the toolbar here at the eBay Toolbar Homepage.

When in doubt, you can send a copy of the ebay emails you receive to spoof@ebay.com or spoof@paypal.com for Paypal emails.

Read these too. It is better to know more to protect yourself, you do not want to whine and learn only when you’ve been scammed:

1. Safe Trading Tips
2. eBay Security Center
3. PayPal Security Center:
4. Federal Trade Commission

Scammers are running rampant and are difficult to catch and trace. As much as you want to learn making money on eBay, you should also arm yourself with information pertaining to fraud, spoof and scams around the eBay marketplace. Beware of how you can be scammed and the risks, these are some of the important lessons you should study before you start.

Tags: online fraud, phishing, spoof emails, ebay, paypal