eBay scam listings redirect people to phishing websites

Phishing websites are tricky to spot, and often they look identical to the websites that they’re mimicking in order to trick you into handing over your log-in details. Normally making sure you’re doing everything on the correct website means you’re safe, but recent eBay scams have changed all that.

The new scam is that a legitimate-looking listing on eBay will actually redirect you to a phishing website, where you would enter in your log-in details, hand them over, and nobody would be any wiser. Until, of course, random purchases and transactions start appearing on your PayPal statements.

The original scam that was spotted was for an iPhone 5S, and when told of the problem eBay took 12 hours to remove it. Not good going that really. Sadly, according to the BBC, it also wasn’t the only scam listing to be found either.

eBay has released a statement which said “This is not a new type of vulnerability on sites such as eBay … we are aware that active content may also be used in abusive ways”. Which isn’t really any help is it. It’s no wonder people are criticising them for not being pro-active about the issue.