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So, sold a old powerbook on ebay a few days ago.
Started getting today email messages from an ebay user who registered the day before the auction closed, and who did not win, asking me this morning for the system password for the powerbook I sold them. Interesting thought I, and informed ebay.
This evening I have 2 more messages, the last one asking for the tiger disks they claim were not in the box, the earlier one asking the below:
"Hi, there are a few questions I have about the power book I bought. Has it been refurbished? I have set up the computer and it has asked for a password. We've guessed the password but now we can't seem to connect to our Internet. This is because we need a keychain password and it won't accept ours. It needs the old one to be able to change it ie: your keychain password. Please could u advise us or do I have this password? Urgent as we have already paid u. Thanks"
So clearly, from a detached point of view this is all rather amusing, i have informed ebay at each step and ignored all their questions.
From a slightly more hysterical point of view: are they likely to have got any more info from me? i am rather carefull with passwords, a 4 level system, no names etc, but can they have extracted anymore info from anywhere else?
The questions are not blind, they are targetted, someone having a laugh I guess and maybe tries this on many computer sellers, but still a little concerning? ❓
Now, hold on, I have someone from India asking for my passwords and to connect to my machine so they can help me fix a windows problem...
😆
The windows problem phone calls are crying out for a VM image to let them loose on 🙂
Did you not format it before selling it?
arcing, just to be clear, they are not the winners of the auction, and are not in receipt of the mac. In fact, it is still sitting here waiting courier collection. 😀
But yes, just FYI and to CMA, it was formatted.
Sorry, long day. They're just phishing then, carry on ignoring them and you'll be grand,
Go on, keep us informed of their futile efforts!
Maybe you could string them along..?
Tell them your cousin in Nigeria has the passwords and will send them over by courier to ensure security. However, he is waiting for a business opportunity to complete and until then does not have enough funds to pay the courier. If they could send $150 by Western Union money transfer your cousin will send the passwords immediately, along with a $200 good will payment.
Most people use the same password for everything. So if you give them the system password on the MacBook by mistake, there's a good chance that they'll be able to log into your eBay account, followed by PayPal etc.
Nice little scam, though not surprised that eBay don't give a toss.
Surely, anyone selling a computer on eBay, then getting messages like this from people who are not the auction winner, would detect the whiff of rank rodent, and tell them to go screw themselves?
This could be a mistake not a scam. Unless the OP or eBay have been careless with identity data, the guy asking for the password doesn't know who the OP is, so can't misuse it. We know he/she's a new eBay user, so may be new to eBay, bid on several powerbooks, won one of them, forgot which and misnavigated eBay, ending up asking the wrong seller. Not a mistake you'd make if you've done a few deals on eBay, but easy for a first timer.
Umm is it ebay messaging or your personal email? I would be worried if it was your personal email.
They have 2 feedback scores for tiny purchases made the day they registered (day before auction ended).
toys, no, it is ebay messaging.
greybeard, could be, but they are asking very specific things related to my particular sale (e.g. I included retail tiger disk in the box, and they are asking why they did not receive.). This is a very deliberate scam. I wonder how many people fall for it? As flaperon says, at a minimum, I guess they are hoping to get into my ebay account.
Ebay are being spectacularly useless and vague in dealing with this, so with that in mind...
A request: How should I respond to these scammers? ❓
Most creative yet operational suggestion wins a CRC voucher and I will keep the thread updated 😀
Offer a paypal gift refund, get them to remind you of their email address, post here and then each of us has to sign them up to at least 20 different email responders... revenge by spam.
Tell them that the password is written inside the battery compartment.
toys - evil! 😈
dingo - nice, like it. 😆
Ask them for an address to post the discs to, then send them a bottle of wee with a note explaining how to pour it into their shoes.