Fake eBay messages have long been favorites of phishers – click on a bogus link and you’ll likely go to a fake eBay page that will prompt you for your login and password. We’ve all seen these before, and I don’t fall for them.
But today I received a fake eBay message that made me look, and look again. I was going to delete it, but then reread it, twice, and then checked the links to verify that this was indeed fake, and only then did I delete it. The message purported to be from an eBay user who wanted my opinion on an item that he/she was about to purchase. The message was sent to me not as a buyer or seller (which I’d have immediately known was a fake), but as someone knowledgeable about the item. And the item in question? One of my books (my Sams Teach Yourself SQL Server T-SQL In 10 Minutes)!
Phishing attacks are generally not individualized or customized, phishers tend to cast wide nets in an attempt to catch anything. So this was either an incredible coincidence, or evidence of phishing deception taken to a whole new (and very dangerous) level.
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