My other half just won an auction on the yahoo.com.tw bidding site yesterday (Taiwan’s most popular auction site). The winning bid was NT$5,100 and we met the seller last night. Everything was kosher, the goods were as described and we agreed a delivery date plus payment on delivery. It was only when she checked her email this morning that she discovered this:
[quote=“jj88822@hotmail.com”]寄件者: Yahoo! 奇摩拍賣! jj88822@hotmail.com
收件者: ****@yahoo.com.tw
主題: 得標匯款通知
日期: Thu, 15 Jun 2006 15:06:01 +0800
親愛的買家你好 !感謝你熱情的標下
****,搬家出售,3000起標,無底價…
這項商品，因為個人因素在兩天後即將出國去，短時間不會回國。我希望可以在出國前完成交易，因要出國啦所以沒時間面交。如果可以接受先付款後寄貨者一律免運費，請您在 明天早上10點 前完成匯款， 這樣我可以給你一個優惠價， 金額為: 4600 。
以下是我的匯款帳戶
金融代號:806帳號 :0253222748690
因目前奇摩漏信嚴重並尚未改善 ，所以較少使用YAHOO信箱收發信，請勿回信至YAHOO信箱。有任何問題請以這個信箱連絡，謝謝!
如果超過優惠時間才收到 mail接受此交易方式者請速將此信內容回傳至這個信箱 告知益免物品被轉賣出去。
完成匯款後，請 E-mail給我
☆得 標者姓名：
☆郵 遞 區 號：
☆寄 件 地 址：
☆聯 絡 電 話：
☆轉 帳 金 額：
☆轉 帳 時 間：
☆轉 帳末五碼：
本人在YAHOO賣場信用量好，請不用擔心收不到貨的問題， 物品收到有問題請在3天內依寄貨單上連絡電話提出，我會立即使用網路ATM退款處理，預祝我們有個愉快的交易謝謝 !^^!
我會在查到帳時立即幫你宅配寄出!約兩天左右你就會收到你的物品。如無法接受此交易方式，我將會把物品轉賣它人。不便之處敬請諒解，謝謝![/quote]
I can’t be bothered to translate all of this, but the cheek of what is contained within is quite eye-opening (to mix my biological metaphors). First, it states that the seller is moving abroad and so therefore wishes to close the deal quickly. To this end, the seller is willing to offer a discount (NT$500) plus free delivery, provided that we deposit NT$4,600 in their account before 10am today (damn, already missed the deadline!). It then goes on to warn us not to contact Yahoo directly, as this is an under-the-table offer :shh: which contravenes their policy (!). The next piece of advice is “not to worry if you get no response from his Yahoo Sellers account” (he’s moving house, give the guy a break!) and that if there is a problem he will refund the money instantly. 
Due to the amount of personal information he is asking us to volunteer, I can only presume this is a phishing scam as well as a cash scam. Oh, and the kicker - it closes by saying that if you do not accept the terms offered within, the seller will sell to another party (also contrary to Yahoo Auctions rules).
Yahoo Taiwan seems to enforce using your Yahoo email address as your username in the auction site. This is phenomenally daft - it allows any spammers and scamsters access to your email address. OK, so you use one designed as a spam receptacle, but obviously you’re also going to get legitimate communication from Yahoo and the seller in this account too. The fact that they do not allow you to choose a username effectively means that your email address is on display to all and sundry, inviting scams like this. :loco:
Anyway, this post serves a dual purpose - firstly to warn people who use the service to be alert for this kind of scam and secondly to ask what we should do next? We have informed Yahoo, but in the UK this would be a criminal matter and we would therefore inform the cops too. Is it worth doing that here? How much information can be discovered from the scammer’s bank account number (visible in the email above)?