Scam via Text Message From eBrandon Classifieds
8/1/2016 at 6:03 PM
Hope this helps prevent some fraud, not sure if it's been reported here before or not, but I just posted a listing to eBrandon classifieds and almost immediately received a message from a scammer.
Here's how it works:
1) You post a message to classifieds and give your cell number
2) You receive a text message asking if you still have the item available
3) They claim they have someone locally who will pick it up and ship it to them
4) They ask for your PayPal email to send you money for payment in full
5) With your email address, they send you a phishing link to a site that looks like PayPal (but it's NOT)
At this point, an unsuspecting user would assume they are on PayPal, provide their user name and password, and essentially give their credentials to the scammers. If you have your CC and bank account tied to PayPal...well, they would have access to that, too.
The phone number used was 1-814-651-7984. They used broken English and claimed not to know how to use the internet (in spite of finding my ad on eBrandon). There are multiple reports of this being a fraudulent phone number online. The domain they were using LOOKED like it was a PayPal site (http://paypal.com.customerservice.some-other-site.cn) but was on an IP address resolving to China and asks you to log in to secure the funds and accept payment. (I'm not posting the actual domain here, no need to spread that around).
I work in internet banking security and see this kind of thing all the time, but I'd never seen this from an eBrandon classified posting before.
My recommendations are:
1) Prefer cash and local pickup: pick a public spot, bring a friend
2) If you agree to use PayPal (which is safe, by the way), make sure you use the http://paypal.me service, where you send the BUYER to a web site to pay you with an amount you specify. You can enable this service through the PayPal app on your phone.
3) Pay attention: email transfers via PayPal do not require you to log in to complete the transfer. You send money, and it's done. If someone does get you to go to a web site to confirm your balance, just log in to https://paypal.com directly and ignore any links they put in their message to you.
Hope this helps prevent someone from getting duped.