Scammer targets Trade Me

About 150 customers of internet auction site Trade Me were duped into responding to a phishing scam by cyber criminals trying to steal their identities.

Trade Me business manager Mike O'Donnell said the scam was a "somewhat shoddy attempt but a good lesson to everybody that Trade Me will never ask you for your personal details by email".

Contrary to some reports, staff did not have to shut down the site but the scam did force them to close some customers' accounts, he said.

Mr O'Donnell said a "nasty piece of work" in Romania on Friday night set up a login page which looked like the Trade Me login page.

The people behind the scam put it on a reputable overseas website - which was not aware of the scam - and then sent a phishing email to a bulk list of emails, he said.

Mr O'Donnell said staff still did not know how the email list was obtained.

The phoney site asked customers to click on a link and provide their details.

"Phishing is not uncommon on the internet and this was a pretty shoddy attempt," he said.

Mr O'Donnell said there were several factors that would have made people aware of the scam.

"First the name 'Maori-with-guns', secondly the person had an overseas email address and lastly he wanted people to pay him offshore via a wire service, which is against our rules." Just over 150 people were "duped into responding" but the Trade Me compliance team managed to intercept about 95 per cent of those emails so the scammer never received them, he said.

"About eight people he did take in and tried to steal their identities but we were able to close down all their accounts and reset them."

The fraudulent site was closed yesterday morning, he said.

Mr O'Donnell said the scam was essentially a numbers game.

"If you send out enough emails, you will get people who respond."

He said the compliance team had "done a great job" in the handling of the situation. "It's fantastic to get a result that no one has lost out in terms of money."

- NZPA