Mutt
Professional
- Messages
- 1,458
- Reaction score
- 1,070
- Points
- 113
Contents
Cases of fraudulent selling of goods occur on a daily basis. At the same time, free classifieds boards on the Internet are actively used, for example, eBay. This is a really great way to sell or buy a product, but it's worth remembering that you have the opportunity to get hooked by scammers. Moreover, we are talking not only about fraudulent sellers, of whom there are many on the Internet, but also about the so-called phantom buyers.
Buyer fraud is not uncommon. There are many schemes for this. An experienced fraudulent buyer can deceive almost any beginner, inexperienced seller. You should be extremely vigilant when making such transactions. In this article, we will tell you about several popular ways of deceiving fraudulent buyers on eBay, and give recommendations on how not to fall for them.
Fraud scheme on eBay and similar message boards
Any seller can be in the place of the victim. To a greater extent, this method is designed for people who are far from the sphere of sales and are not strong in matters of financial literacy (in this case, we mean gaps in the rules for using bank cards).
The fraudster contacts the seller in order to find out details about the product of interest. At the same time, the buyer offers to immediately transfer funds to the card in advance, offering to book the product for it and remove the sale advertisement from the site. The legend is simple: "I have no time now, but in a few days I am ready to drive up and pick up the goods I have booked."
For sellers, this option is only "on hand" - paid, and thank God, but only for experienced sellers. The fraudster, on the other hand, picks up a victim who is selling expensive, but stale goods. Also, for a phantom buyer, the ideal option would be a seller who just posted their ad. But in fact, absolutely anyone can become a victim.
The essence of this method lies in the fact that the victim, due to the excellent sale option, may forget about safety and will not have time to expose the deception in time. In the course of correspondence or more often during a telephone conversation, the fraudster asks for the card details necessary for the transfer, and carefully asks if SMS messages are received after each card transaction, i.e. whether she is connected to a mobile bank. In joy, the victim sometimes forgets about security, and in addition to the card number, he also provides other information about the card, which is the main goal of the swindler.
Further, events may develop according to one of the scenarios below (there may actually be more of them, but the meaning of the scam is the same).
Deception scenario on eBay # 1. Transfer from card to card using card2card services
There are many official card-to-card transfer services on the Internet (card2card or c2c), and they can be found on the websites of various banks. They allow in a matter of minutes to transfer a certain amount from the card account of your card to the card account of any bank only by its number (with a commission, of course). To do this, it is necessary to indicate in the appropriate form all the necessary card details: its number, validity period, full name, CVC2 / CVV2 authentication code (three digits on the back of the plastic). After you enter the transfer amount, you need to go through one more step: confirmation of the operation with a one-time SMS code (3-D Secure).
The scammer's goal is to receive all the above details and a confirmation SMS code sent to your phone (linked to the card). After that, the money is safely transferred to a card unknown to you and the fraudster disappears - you will no longer get through to him and not get through.
In a similar way, money can be transferred to the phone accounts of swindlers (and their accomplices) or to pay for any goods in online stores (see how to pay with a card in online stores?).
Alternatively, a fraudster can find a store that allows you to transfer money without SMS confirmation, but now this is very difficult to do. In this case, you will not be asked to provide the code from SMS, it simply will not be required.
In the process of obtaining details, people may suspect something was wrong, so this method is not as widespread as the next one.
Cheating scenario # 2. Login to the Internet Bank Online by the victim's card number and its full cashing
As you know, there are the most bank cardholders, and the likelihood that you have this particular card is high. Availability of SMS banking services connected to it Mobile Bank further simplifies the life of a fraudster.
So, how events unfold in this scenario. You are asked ONLY for the card number, which no longer arouses suspicion. And they also ask you to dictate the SMS code that will come to your phone linked to your bank card.
What does the fraudster do in this case? He goes to the Bank Online page and registers there again using your card, i.e. receives an identifier and a password to enter your personal account by its number. The bank will send a code in an SMS message to confirm these operations, and if you tell this code to a criminal, then, figuratively speaking, sign your verdict. The fraudster will enter your personal account and gain full control over ALL (!) Your accounts. It is very dangerous! You can be robbed like a stick, and the arrogant swindlers, when they transfer your money to no one knows where, will call you again and ask you to dictate a one-time code from an SMS message again. And the most interesting thing is that people report these codes and are left with nothing!
You can get a login and password from online banking in another way. You may be asked at the time of the transfer to go to the bank ATM, ostensibly to confirm the transfer (a hundred reasons can be found to truthfully justify the need to do this). And they will ask you to perform certain actions, the result of which will be the transfer of the login and password to the attackers.
Perhaps this is one of the most popular types of deception on eBay.
How to protect yourself from a phantom buyer?
In such cases, contacting the bank is simply useless, since the client himself voluntarily dictated all the data about the card to strangers, which is a violation of the terms of use of the cards. In addition, law enforcement agencies rarely manage to track down the culprit.
To protect yourself from a phantom seller, you need to remember just a few rules that will protect you as a seller, namely:
A typical case from life
“I have only been involved in the sale of goods a few times in my life, and then, these were things that I simply did not use for a long time. This time I decided to sell a bike that had been covered in dust for many years. Literally half an hour after posting an ad on eBay, I got a call from a person who, it seemed to me, was very interested in buying. He asked me to dictate the card details in order to transfer funds immediately, and tell me the code that came to me in an SMS message - to confirm the transfer, as the buyer said. This was just an ideal option for me, especially since I really needed money at that moment. However, I did not wait for the funds to be credited. In addition, those $ 100 that were on the card disappeared without a trace.
The bank did not help me in any way, saying that I had violated the terms of the contract and transferred the data to third parties. I did not write a statement to the police, because I simply do not believe that they are engaged in such cases. This is how I became a victim without even knowing it. Therefore, be careful and do not pass card data to strangers, it can end as badly as in the case with me".
We also recommend that you check out the video that details this type of fraud.
- 1. Fraud scheme on eBay and similar message boards
- 2. Script of deception on Avito number 1. Transfer from card to card using card2card services
- 3. Deception Scenario # 2. Login to the Internet Bank Online by the victim's card number and its full cashing
- 4. How to protect yourself from a phantom buyer?
- 5. A typical case of life
Cases of fraudulent selling of goods occur on a daily basis. At the same time, free classifieds boards on the Internet are actively used, for example, eBay. This is a really great way to sell or buy a product, but it's worth remembering that you have the opportunity to get hooked by scammers. Moreover, we are talking not only about fraudulent sellers, of whom there are many on the Internet, but also about the so-called phantom buyers.
Buyer fraud is not uncommon. There are many schemes for this. An experienced fraudulent buyer can deceive almost any beginner, inexperienced seller. You should be extremely vigilant when making such transactions. In this article, we will tell you about several popular ways of deceiving fraudulent buyers on eBay, and give recommendations on how not to fall for them.
Fraud scheme on eBay and similar message boards
Any seller can be in the place of the victim. To a greater extent, this method is designed for people who are far from the sphere of sales and are not strong in matters of financial literacy (in this case, we mean gaps in the rules for using bank cards).
The fraudster contacts the seller in order to find out details about the product of interest. At the same time, the buyer offers to immediately transfer funds to the card in advance, offering to book the product for it and remove the sale advertisement from the site. The legend is simple: "I have no time now, but in a few days I am ready to drive up and pick up the goods I have booked."
For sellers, this option is only "on hand" - paid, and thank God, but only for experienced sellers. The fraudster, on the other hand, picks up a victim who is selling expensive, but stale goods. Also, for a phantom buyer, the ideal option would be a seller who just posted their ad. But in fact, absolutely anyone can become a victim.
The essence of this method lies in the fact that the victim, due to the excellent sale option, may forget about safety and will not have time to expose the deception in time. In the course of correspondence or more often during a telephone conversation, the fraudster asks for the card details necessary for the transfer, and carefully asks if SMS messages are received after each card transaction, i.e. whether she is connected to a mobile bank. In joy, the victim sometimes forgets about security, and in addition to the card number, he also provides other information about the card, which is the main goal of the swindler.
Further, events may develop according to one of the scenarios below (there may actually be more of them, but the meaning of the scam is the same).
Deception scenario on eBay # 1. Transfer from card to card using card2card services
There are many official card-to-card transfer services on the Internet (card2card or c2c), and they can be found on the websites of various banks. They allow in a matter of minutes to transfer a certain amount from the card account of your card to the card account of any bank only by its number (with a commission, of course). To do this, it is necessary to indicate in the appropriate form all the necessary card details: its number, validity period, full name, CVC2 / CVV2 authentication code (three digits on the back of the plastic). After you enter the transfer amount, you need to go through one more step: confirmation of the operation with a one-time SMS code (3-D Secure).
The scammer's goal is to receive all the above details and a confirmation SMS code sent to your phone (linked to the card). After that, the money is safely transferred to a card unknown to you and the fraudster disappears - you will no longer get through to him and not get through.
In a similar way, money can be transferred to the phone accounts of swindlers (and their accomplices) or to pay for any goods in online stores (see how to pay with a card in online stores?).
Alternatively, a fraudster can find a store that allows you to transfer money without SMS confirmation, but now this is very difficult to do. In this case, you will not be asked to provide the code from SMS, it simply will not be required.
In the process of obtaining details, people may suspect something was wrong, so this method is not as widespread as the next one.
Cheating scenario # 2. Login to the Internet Bank Online by the victim's card number and its full cashing
As you know, there are the most bank cardholders, and the likelihood that you have this particular card is high. Availability of SMS banking services connected to it Mobile Bank further simplifies the life of a fraudster.
So, how events unfold in this scenario. You are asked ONLY for the card number, which no longer arouses suspicion. And they also ask you to dictate the SMS code that will come to your phone linked to your bank card.
What does the fraudster do in this case? He goes to the Bank Online page and registers there again using your card, i.e. receives an identifier and a password to enter your personal account by its number. The bank will send a code in an SMS message to confirm these operations, and if you tell this code to a criminal, then, figuratively speaking, sign your verdict. The fraudster will enter your personal account and gain full control over ALL (!) Your accounts. It is very dangerous! You can be robbed like a stick, and the arrogant swindlers, when they transfer your money to no one knows where, will call you again and ask you to dictate a one-time code from an SMS message again. And the most interesting thing is that people report these codes and are left with nothing!
You can get a login and password from online banking in another way. You may be asked at the time of the transfer to go to the bank ATM, ostensibly to confirm the transfer (a hundred reasons can be found to truthfully justify the need to do this). And they will ask you to perform certain actions, the result of which will be the transfer of the login and password to the attackers.
Perhaps this is one of the most popular types of deception on eBay.
How to protect yourself from a phantom buyer?
In such cases, contacting the bank is simply useless, since the client himself voluntarily dictated all the data about the card to strangers, which is a violation of the terms of use of the cards. In addition, law enforcement agencies rarely manage to track down the culprit.
To protect yourself from a phantom seller, you need to remember just a few rules that will protect you as a seller, namely:
- never tell your card number, CVV2 / CVC2 codes, expiration date, secret codes from one-time SMS messages. This is guaranteed to protect you from such "profitable" deals. Remember that only the card number is sufficient for the transfer. Details in the article: “Is it possible to steal money knowing the card number?";
- use the services of banks whose cards are replenished not by the card number, but by the account number;
- if you still plan to communicate the card details to the buyer, make sure that there are no funds on it. For these purposes, you can issue a free debit card at the bank;
- if you only have a credit card, in no case tell the buyer its details and never "shine" them on the Internet. Use virtual cards or see the above paragraph;
- activate the 3D-Secure service on all your cards, which will not allow you to carry out any financial transactions without entering a one-time confirmation code, which will be sent to you via SMS to your mobile number. If, nevertheless, the scammers managed to get hold of funds from your card, the responsibility for this can be shifted to a resource on whose website 3D-Secure did not work.
A typical case from life
“I have only been involved in the sale of goods a few times in my life, and then, these were things that I simply did not use for a long time. This time I decided to sell a bike that had been covered in dust for many years. Literally half an hour after posting an ad on eBay, I got a call from a person who, it seemed to me, was very interested in buying. He asked me to dictate the card details in order to transfer funds immediately, and tell me the code that came to me in an SMS message - to confirm the transfer, as the buyer said. This was just an ideal option for me, especially since I really needed money at that moment. However, I did not wait for the funds to be credited. In addition, those $ 100 that were on the card disappeared without a trace.
The bank did not help me in any way, saying that I had violated the terms of the contract and transferred the data to third parties. I did not write a statement to the police, because I simply do not believe that they are engaged in such cases. This is how I became a victim without even knowing it. Therefore, be careful and do not pass card data to strangers, it can end as badly as in the case with me".
We also recommend that you check out the video that details this type of fraud.
