I never knew this was possible, but on Sunday I discovered 171 listings on my ebay page, for things like yamaha motorbike parts, and even musical instruments – all high price items – nothing to do with the stuff I sell.

I thought I’d put a quick piece on my blog to warn others about this new – well new to me at least – scam …..and to assure Club Members that might have seen them, that my account is now safe again.

I was just checking my emails on Sunday and noticed that i had  hundreds of them – all from ebay, confirming these new listings, when the phone rang, and it was one of Ebay’s staff – so thanks to them, they had noticed it and were pretty quick off the mark.  And I didn’t have to panic for too long!

What had happened was that I have an auctiva account, which I’ve not used for ages – and I’d been sent an email asking me to renew the “ebay token”, otherwise my account wouldn’t link to ebay.  I just assumed that this token had run out because I hadn’t logged in for a while and followed the link – got taken to the acutivia site, and then back to my ebay page – so I just thought nothing of it.

Apparently, the emails are so convincing that they have fooled lots of people, and somehow they manage to then get access to your ebay account – but not – I was assured, my paypal account!

I didn’t actually read much of the stuff on these spoof listings, but apparently the lady from ebay told me that they put up a direct contact so that they can sell the item for cash, and bypass ebay altogether.

However, if no one had done anything about it, I would probably be barred from both sites and  have incurred listing fees on both ebay and auctiva, and I’m going to have to check both account fees carefully to make sure they have all been taken off.

Almost as soon as these listings were taken down, I got an email from someone promising to come round with over £1000 in cash to buy an item!  I assume this was whoever had posted the listings, trying to con me into replying with my email address.

AND since then I have had daily emails purporting to come from auctiva, asking me to again renew my “ebay token” – so BE WARNED!

And I thank ebay for getting on to it so quickly – for once the enormous amount of fees you charge – may have been worth it!  Smile