posted on March 9, 2003 02:06:50 PM new
I have received several email requests to complete surveys relating to Ebay, but today I had one that was a little different and wondered if anyone else had received it?
The subject line was Ebay site usability or something like that. Then it asked if I was male/female and if I sold/or bought on Ebay.
Then, it said I qualified to complete the survey and to click on continue and a small plug-in would be installed to complete. It also said I would receive a $10 super gift certificate good at several stores.
At that time I got suspicious. 1. I have never had a plug-in installed to complete Ebay surveys. 2. Why a gift certificate for non-Ebay items?
I closed the window and stopped the survey but wanted to know if anyone else has received this email?
posted on March 9, 2003 02:23:25 PM new
I received two of these today!
Dear Ebay Customer,
This email is to inform you of a recent update we made to our systems,
To avoid service Interruption we require that you confirm
your account as soon as possible.
Please take a moment to confirm your account by going to the following address:
deleted
Follow these steps:
1: Log in by clicking the link given above.
2: Verify who you are.
3: Your account will then be updated, you may continue using Ebay services with out any interruptions.
*** Please note: If you FAIL to update your account, it will be temporarily disabled.
We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.
The Ebay team is working hard to bring you the best services on the web.
Thank you for your business.
The Ebay Staff.
************************************************************************************************************
Do not reply to this e-mail, for assistance contact the customer service team.
************************************************************************************************************
posted on March 9, 2003 07:59:42 PM new
I thought it was strange. And, if it came from Ebay someone else here probably would have received one as well.
Glad I clicked back before letting it install.
Edited to add that it had all the usual disclaimers about Ebay never asking for passwords etc. at the end which is why I went as far as I did with it.
[ edited by lindajean on Mar 9, 2003 08:00 PM ]
posted on March 9, 2003 08:16:06 PM new
Is this the email you received Lindajean? I received this today from "ebay". I delete everything from "ebay" which requires me to link to another site:
"Dear xxxxxx , In a continuing effort to provide our users the best possible online trading experience, eBay randomly selects registered users,
like you, to participate in a site evaluation. Your feedback will help us better understand the types of services and features that
will enhance your use of eBay. Please complete this site evaluation and provide your valuable feedback. In return, we will reward
you with a $10 SuperCertificate® redeemable at GiftCertificates.com™. A SuperCertificate from GiftCertificates.com lets you
choose original gift certificates from hundreds of your favorite stores, restaurants, theaters and more.
Before taking the evaluation, you will be asked to answer two questions. Upon completion of these two questions, you will be
taken directly to the evaluation if your operating system and browser meet the requirements. (The system requirements are: IE
5.01 or greater and Windows 2000, NT or XP operating systems only.) The entire evaluation process should take 30-45
minutes. If your results reflect a good faith effort to review the site, attempt the tasks and respond to the questions asked, we will
reward you with a $10 SuperCertificate redeemable at GiftCertificates.com.
To participate, please complete the site evaluation as soon as possible. Please note there are a limited number of panelist slots,
which will be given out on a first-come, first-served basis -- so please take the evaluation soon.
eBay has commissioned Vividence to conduct this study among its members. In order to participate, you will need to download
the Vividence Connector.
INSTRUCTIONS TO DOWNLOAD VIVIDENCE CONNECTOR:
Click here to start: http://pages.ebay.com/vividence/survey
If you have any questions, please contact Vividence Panel Support at: [email protected]. (Please do not reply to
the address in the from line of this e-mail.)
As always, we appreciate your contributions to the eBay Community.
Umm... The only problem with your posting is that you need to be aware that if you post a real web address here, it will be a clickable link for those who are receiving email notification of posts on this thread when it arrives in their mailbox.
That means that everyone following this thread with email notification has to make sure they don't click on those links, or they are taken right to the hacker's site if it is one. I suggest adding an extra period or leaving part of the addfress out next time.
Normally, not a problem. Just is when you post an address no one here should be going to. I figured you didn't know that you had just sent that active link to numerous people. Despite the fact that you see only a few posters here, there are many that lurk and read that may not be as savvy and experienced as the posters.
posted on March 9, 2003 08:46:10 PM new
Several red flags in that email from "eBay". First, any survey they do will be able to be completed with any browser and OS that can contact and surf their site. Second, Ebay is soliciting surveys on a small scale in the form of interactive forms that are pop ups on their site, not through email. I find it hard to believe they would send you to a site to download a plug in. It sounds like a trojan that is only designed the operating systems mentioned in the email. Lastly, the gift certificates. Lindajean hit the nail on the head. There's no way Ebay is going to encourage a user to shop anywhere but Ebay, much less offer to help finance an off site shopping trip. The proper response to this email is to hit the delete button, after forwarding it to Ebay.
The light at the end of the tunnel will turn out to be an oncoming train.
posted on March 10, 2003 08:46:41 AM new
Yes, that is the one I received as well.
I had deleted it and then thought I would see if anyone else had received the same.
Thanks for everyones input. I am glad I did not go through with it.
I actually received one of those "You must update your Ebay info" emails yesterday as well, but it went to my private email address. I had since set up a new one for email with my ebay ID as the address so I guess the scammers are using old info!
posted on March 10, 2003 09:22:41 PM new
I received the same email. Here are the headers. Maybe soeone can tell where it came from.
----------------------- Headers --------------------------------
Return-Path: <[email protected]>
Received: from rly-xe02.mx.aol.com (rly-xe02.mail.aol.com [172.20.105.194]) by air-xe04.mail.aol.com (v90_r2.5) with ESMTP id MAILINXE41-0307160256; Fri, 07 Mar 2003 16:02:56 -0500
Received: from rcmail.prod.vividence.net ([216.148.219.135]) by rly-xe02.mx.aol.com (v92.16) with ESMTP id MAILRELAYINXE29-4193e6908dab9; Fri, 07 Mar 2003 16:02:18 -0500
Received: from rcapp3 ([10.1.3.22]) by rcmail.prod.vividence.net with Microsoft SMTPSVC(5.0.2195.5329);
Fri, 7 Mar 2003 13:02:03 -0800
Reply-To: <[email protected]>
From: <[email protected]>
Sender: <[email protected]>
To: <[email protected]>
Subject: eBay Site Evaluation: Your feedback is important
Date: Fri, 7 Mar 2003 13:02:03 -0800
Message-ID: <[email protected]>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: multipart/alternative;
boundary="----=_NextPart_000_13D2_01C2E4A9.BFE05030"
X-Mailer: Microsoft CDO for Windows 2000
Thread-Index: AcLk7Myp8Lk5pVxGTd29GH5Mrb1i6Q==
Content-Class: urn:content-classes:message
X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2600.0000
X-OriginalArrivalTime: 07 Mar 2003 21:02:03.0854 (UTC) FILETIME=[CDF426E0:01C2E4EC]
posted on March 11, 2003 11:12:29 PM new
Well, not so fast. I know it's easy today to jump to conclusions (and I wouldn't participate anyway}, but Vividence is major internet marketing survy organization, and eBay is one of their premier clients.
The information contained in the header indicates that the message is coming from Vividence.
The download, whatever it is, is their product, not eBay's. So it stands to reason they have limits on OS and browser.
