IF a message does come to you from Ebay,it will contain your user name,if you use Ebay.Everyone I get,I forward it to Ebay and they can trace who is sending this junk to you and me.tbk

I've seen a couple of those, wasn't real sure what the deal was but I never opened them, just deleted. I've been an e-bay member since 03 and bought five tractors plus different parts on e-bay without trouble, but you do have to pay attention, it seems the world is full of a--holes that would rather steal than make an honest living. I've always thought there should be a year around open season on shoting those kind of varmits.

I will second the motion for open season on "them thar varmints", but only if you stipulate that a "gut shot" be used. :^(

I have gotten a half dozen similar to this and I don't even have an ebay account. I forwarded one to the Abuse address but nothing happened.

It is puzzling to me with today's technology why these, and really the Terrorist sites, can't be closed down.

Walt Conner

If you are not an eBay member, the Abuse center will not reply to you.

Tracking these bas tards down isn't an easy task. Lots of them operate from areas inside the former USSR and funnel what they do through hi-jacked sites. Most of them don't even make use of the information they get from unwitting respondents. Instead, they sell it to others.

As fast as the police root out one of these little crooks, four more spring up to take their place. Without total international co-operation, it's just about impossible to do anything against them. They pretty much act with impunity due to ambivelence of the government/police where they live or that age old problem known as corruption.

The best defence to these guys is to educate the general public so that they recognize the fake emails and simply delete them.

For those who use the internet alot to do purchasing, like me, I recommend Lifelock. Although you can do the same thing as Lifelock, it's worth the 10 bucks a month for them to do it and they have a 5 million (I think) dollar protection plan for ID theft.

Castoff, only reason I haven't been snorting any MF fumes is that it's been too wet to do a darn thing. But you did give me a chuckle.

I heard they are all sent by lb59.

Any email sent to you by Ebay will also be matched in your Ebay account in the messages section of "My Ebay". If you get an email that says it's from Ebay, log into your account, and check to see if it's there as well. If not, it's a FAKE.

Watch out for second chance offers, too. I got one once for a JD 214 that I didn't win, saying the original seller had backed out, and my $700 bid was now the high end. I was more than a little suspicious when the seller said he would not charge me for shipping, so I contacted the seller through ebay.com, and gave my phone number. She called me within about three hours saying the tractor had been sold and picked up, don't pay this person a dime, and report him. I sent him a polite but honest email telling him what a low-life drain on society he was, which I'm sure he promptly deleted, but it made me feel better. His email was from kred.com, which I guess allows anyone to set up anonymous accounts, like hotmail.
The lesson in the end is that like Castoff said, if ebay or an ebay user wants to get in touch with you, they'll do it through ebay.com, not from some random email account, directly to your personal email account.
Also, if it looks too good to be true, it is. No one's going to ship a tractor at a cost of $450 when the sale price is only $700. They also won't sell a three-year-old name-brand CUT with a loader and backhoe for the buy-it-now price of $2,500.
Buyer beware!

I've had some of these fake 2nd chance messages as well. I don't bother to sent them to E-bay anymore 'cause nothing ever happens. I don't do as much on E-bay anymore due to the high volume of stolen goods. I DID just pick up a Brinly Moldboard plow yesterday though....

Those phoney e-mails are called a phish,aka fish.The senders are fishing,and sooner or later,they catch a sucker.not a suckerfish.As was once said,there is a sucker born every minute,and after your give them your finacial imformation,you get reeled in,and no way to catch them.