Thanks, Martin.  I thought I was an early user, registered since Jan 1999, but you're way ahead of me.

I get one of those types of e-mails a couple of times a year.

One way of helping pick out the spoof (fake) e-mails is that they don't use your real name whereas eBay will include our first and last name in the salutation.

Harvey

It is called "phishing"! Not sure how it works with ebay, but I almost got nailed with
my paypal account. Basically, one receives a "fraud"  email with some alarming
account news, with a "fake" link where one is required to enter
user name and password and investigate - then one is toast ($$$ empty balance)...
Same  method is used to access any regular bank account, so beware.
Any email regarding any private account without your full name fully-spelled,
is most likely a very "stinky fish".
See:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phishing

Thats terrible Gorgi they almost draining an account, if these kids at least i think its kids use there mind for the good they could be an asset to society.
Martin

No, 'they' did not steal a single cent  from me, because of my very quick realization
of  what was happening (the clue was that their fake site looked somewhat different
and lacked certain personal details). I quickly changed my password (to a very tough
one), and then informed paypal (with  a copy of the fake email).

Usually any fraud can be reported via email to the target site at
fraud@(target site); e.g., fraud @paypal.com

ANY, ANY, ANY e-mail from Ebay or Paypal must be considered fraudulent, until absolutely proven otherwise, beyond the shadow of a doubt. Many looik very good, but  are still fraudulent. The most convincing one I have seen was only detectable because there were a couple of spelling or grammar errors. 99.9999% of them are fraudulent.

>>>(ebay/paypal) 99.9999% of them are fraudulent.
Really? I do not think so! I have been a user for both for ~5 years, and I only had
one fraudulent email. Before that, I was naive, now I learned my (lucky) lesson,
and extended it to my regular (but same as vulnerable) bank accounts. Hope that
I am immune now. Ebay, paypal and the whole internet are  very one-good-thing.
Without the internet, this FF would not be possible. I also think that heavier
penalties for (fraud/spam) offenders should be imposed (like being put
against a brick wall and just plain shot!).

Or maybe you mean that the items on ebay are not genuine? Yes, I have seen
a lot of those too, but still not anywhere near any  ~100%.

One just needs to be somewhat cautious/vigilant.

No, No, No. If you get an e-mail which seems to be from Paypal or Ebay it is probably fraudulent. I go through periods when I get 3-4-5 a day for weeks, and then it quiets down, and then starts up again. Paypal and Ebay (apart from notifications about items you are watching or bidding on) almost never contact their users. And if the e-mail is soliciting any personal info, it is bogus. Period. If you respond, it will always take you so some site which is fraudulent. If you get a "second offer" or other solicitation which isn't handled through Ebay, as an E-bay item, requesting payment outside of Ebay - you will loose your money.

The quality and legitimacy of items on Ebay is another issue entirely.

I get a fair amount of eBay e-mails, maybe 20 a week, and rarely get one that is a fraud these days.  But, I suspect that might be because they are getting filtered out as spam before I see them, though I'm not sure that is the case since they don't end up in my spam folder.  I used to get quite a few spam messages but it seemed to slow down considerably earlier this year for some reason.

A friend of mine had about $5,000 drained from his PayPal account but quick action by him and PayPal got it restored quickly.  He had some spyware on his PC that had recorded his keystrokes stolen his password.  I didn't know it until he told me about it, but PayPal offers a service with a random password generator (you use something like a key fob to get your password).  They charge for the service but offered it for free to my friend since he had these troubles and does quite a bit if business through them that they wanted to keep.