Today I received an email from eBay as follows:
MC139 NOTICE: eBay Communication Partner Warning
Hello [my ebay name] [my email address],
Our records show that you recently received an email from [seller name] through the Ask Seller a Question or Contact eBay Member features.
This email may be fraudulent and an attempt to do one of the following:
- Obtain your eBay password
- Gain access to your eBay account
- Use your eBay account for fraudulent activity
- Set up an outside-of-eBay transaction which may be fraudulent
This kind of email is often called a "phish" or "phishing attempt," and the people who send them are known as "phishers". Phishers use these methods to try to get your personal information, such as user names, passwords and credit card details. Because the emails may sometimes come through the eBay system, the phisher may seem to be trustworthy and have a good reason to contact you.
Learn more here:
http://help.ebay.com.au/Help/Security/Avoiding_scams/Phishing_emails
[etc.]
This email / message (it was in my eBay inbox as well) seems to be designed to strike distrust and terror into the heart of unsuspecting eBayers. "What" - I can imagine them thinking frantically - 'is going on? What's happened? Am I vulnerable? Who IS this person? eBay wouldn't contact me like this unless they really suspected something dodgy going on, would they? Oh mon dieu, I'd better contact the Fraud Squad, the International Police, MI5, MI6, Poirot!"
Point 1: If I look through my messages, the strange thing is that I can see no message by the eBayer concerned. That's one problem. eBay's message to me gives me the distinct impression that the eBayer DID contact me.
Point 2: I actually contacted the seller - some time ago. I messaged the seller about an item he/she had listed, on the 3rd June. But I never actually received any reply.
Point 3: I now uneasily suspect that the seller DID reply to me, but that eBay blocked the reply.
Point 4: And if that's the case - that has affected my purchasing or feedback. In other words, I either purchased from this seller (but marked down on communication in the DSRs) or didn't purchase from the seller on the basis that my question wasn't answered and that I felt no confidence in the seller as a result of it being ignored.
Point 5: On the other hand, perhaps the seller never did bother to reply to me, and eBay's automatic "Thou Shalt Feel Suspicious Of This eBayer" spiel has somehow mistaken a message from me to the seller as being a message from the seller to me.
Either way, the average eBayer is going to end up feeling confused and annoyed, not to say suspicious...
