eBay users began complaining on Wednesday of an unusual number of Second Chance Offers showing up on their eBay Messages screen, all of which were invalid offers. A Second Chance Offer (SCO) lets sellers make an offer to a non-winning bidder for a Buy-It-Now price equal to the non-winning bidder's bid amount. A seller can send a Second Chance Offer to any of the non-winning bidders if the winning bidder does not pay the seller, if a seller has duplicate items, or the reserve price is not met in a Reserve Price Auction.

On Wednesday, sellers posting on eBay message boards complained they were getting Second Chance Offer showing up on my eBay Messages screen, even on accounts they never use to bid. They said when they clicked on the SCO link in My Messages, it would display the following message:

"This listing (#0000000000) has been removed or is no longer available. Please make sure you entered the right item number."

eBay spokesperson Catherine England confirmed that there was a bug and eBay was working to resolve the issue. "An alert is appearing intermittently on the top of eBay pages for some users informing them they have a second chance offer (when they don't). When individuals click through the alert they get an error message that tells them the item number is invalid. To clarify, the bug is causing false alerts on the top of eBay pages but it is not generating second chance offer emails in My Messages."

On Thursday, eBay posted an announcement on its Announcement Board that it was making some changes to make it easier for members to tell when they have received a legitimate Second Chance Offer. Scammers have been using Second Chance Offers to try and trick buyers into entering into fraudulent transactions.

According to the post, bidders will be able to verify the authenticity of SCOs in the following locations:

• The closed item page for that listing, underneath the "You were outbid" message.
  
  
• The "Items I Didn't Win" section within My eBay by clicking on the "Second Chance Offers" link.
  
  
• At the top of any eBay page after you sign in (next to the "Hello," message under the header).
  
  

In addition, sellers will be able to add a personalized message to the buyer whenever they send a Second Chance Offer.

Scammers also send phishing emails that look like Second Chance Offers, but eBay's website says it never sends Second Chance Offer emails with the subject line "Question from eBay Member." eBay's England said Second Chance Offer scams have been around for some time, both those using the eBay Messaging system and those using phishing techniques. Recipients of SCOs should always check the eBay Item ID and the seller User ID. If they don't have the eBay toolbar installed that detects when they are on valid eBay pages, they should make sure they are on eBay.com, England said.

http://forums.ebay.com/db2/thread.jspa?threadID=2000126154

http://www2.ebay.com/aw/core/200604201142502.html