About a week ago I put in a lowball eBay bid on a Speedmaster 125. As is usually the case with such bids, I didn't win, however this morning I received an email (supposedly) from eBay with a Second Chance Offer. Long story short, the email did not come from eBay, instead it was someone who was more than happy to try to separate me from my hard earned money.

I know most of the users here are not novices when it comes to this sort of thing, but a reminder to be alert when buying things from strangers never hurt.

 

Your email address is still visible at the bottom

This is interesting. I wonder how a 3rd party could get your information out of the bidding history.

 

No way ebay giving seller's or buyer's email information. Glad to hear you are out of trouble.

Your ebay message heading is clearly wrong. The legitimate second chance should have heading like this:
eBay sent this message to XXXXXXXX (xxxxxxxx).Your registered name is included to show this message originated from eBay. Learn more.
Lucky you. Here's a second chance to buy the item you recently lost.

You can be sure a Second Chance Offer is legitimate when you see it in My Messages with the subject line, "You have a second chance offer". If it is not, it's fake. Do not respond to the sender or complete the transaction. Outside of eBay offers may be fraudulent and not covered by buyer protection programmes. Learn more

 

Oops! I should probably fix that. In the meantime, feel free to send me an email just to say hi!

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This is interesting. I wonder how a 3rd party could get your information out of the bidding history.​

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Yeah, I was surprised that whoever sent this was able to get my email address. I didn't think that eBay made that public, even to people that you've completed transactions with.

 

The big tip-off was that the instructions were to simply contact the "seller" directly via email, not through eBay.

 

yeah, a few guys try hard lately....... had today 2 bidders contacting me that they would like to accept my 2. chance offer on a spedy 321. they were well down the line in 4. and 6. place. that alone should ring alarmbells...... take care. achim

 

This is good to know if I ever decide to buy online.....................not!

 

Yes, indeed – be careful out there! These "Second Chance Offer" scams are getting very sophisticated and more difficult to distinguish from the real deal – I just received in my email such a notice. I checked the message for the basic things and details that are typical giveaways of fraud – and then I signed in “My eBay” and looked for the notice in my message box – guess what? There was no such notice form eBay. Here’s how eBay says we make sure the message is the real deal:


How to make sure a Second Chance Offer is legitimate:

• Sign in to My eBay and go to the Messages tab. You’ll find the Second Chance Offer email in your messages. Legitimate Second Chance Offers are forwarded directly from us with a subject line of "You have a second chance offer."
• The listing will display the following message, "You have received a second chance offer for this item." You can click the Second Chance Offer link to view the details and buy the item.
• A Second Chance Offer message alert will display at the top of any eBay page when you sign in.
• Sign in to My eBay. In the Buy section, click the Didn't win link. If you still want the item, click the Buy It Now button.

We will never send a Second Chance Offer email with the subject line "Message from eBay Member." If you receive an email pretending to be a Second Chance Offer with that subject line, it's a fake. Forward the email to [email protected].

 

I had a similar thing a few months back, it is surprising how someone got all the information.

When I emailed ebay about the hoax offer they didnt even bother to reply

 

Wow, this is scary, what perplexes me is :
- how did they know how much you'd bid (assuming the amount was correct) ?
- how did they get your email
- how can eBay guarantee that you're ok if the headers says "You've received a second chance offer", that sounds prettty easy to copy?

 

Everything about the email they sent to me was correct...........except it was emailed to me and not in my ebay messages.

I dont know if they hacked my account or the seller's but I didnt have any unauthorised activity on my account so I assumed they didnt hack my account and I obviously changed the password afterwards.

A genuine second chance offer does look a little different and they dont ask you to contact them via email

 

Thanks for posting! Many of us here have probably received/responded to second chance offers, but they don't come up every day. Can't use too much caution especially when it comes to "out of the ordinary" situations like this (Must remember....check and go through eBay messages.) Maybe I'm different, but I don't pay for eBay items using the message sent to my email address. I always go to the website itself.