Watch out for fake second-chance offers

A new variation on phishing e-mail and other scams. If you bid on big-ticket items like Prada handbags but just barely miss winning, you could get a “second-chance offer” in your e-mail soon after the auction ends. I recently bid on a large-ticket item — no, not a Prada handbag! — and lost in the final seconds of the auction. Less than 20 minutes later, I got a “second-chance offer” in my e-mail, with a link to follow that was outside of eBay. It looked reasonably legitimate at first blush: Auction number, description, seller, and my highest bid. (This information is all available on the auction unless the seller explicitly makes the auction private, in which case no other bidding information is available to anyone but the seller.) Over the next day or so I got two more such “offers.”
Second-chance offers are legitimate offerings of eBay and allow a seller to offer the first runner-up a chance to buy the item if the original winner backs out. They will appear in your member’s area if they are legitimate. If you get an e-mail with a second-chance offer and it’s not showing up in your member’s section on eBay, then it’s a scam. You’re not protected by eBay in any way for such transactions.