Fraudulent mail is now part of the everyday lives of Internet users. Now, for the first time, the numismatic community is affected. Unknown scammers send mail on behalf of auction houses to customers who bid at an auction via Sixbid. So far, there are three known versions of this fraudulent mail.
- Post-auction sale
- Invoices
- Confirmation of a winning bid
Sixbid informs its customers
Presently, Sixbid is aware of approximately 50 such cases. The online platform responded promptly, and informed all registered bidders via e-mail. In addition, currently each bidder receives an additional letter as soon as they submit a bid to Sixbid. The police have been notified, not only on the part of Sixbid, but also from the affected auction houses. It is important that as many examples as possible of this fraudulent mail be made available for police prosecution. Therefore, Ulf Künker, chairman of Sixbid, asks anyone who has received such an email, to forward it to Sixbid.
This is what the fake mail looks like
Sixbid provides an overview of what the three types of fake mail look like.
Post-auction sale
Fraudulent invoice
Confirmation of a winning bid
Criteria to identify fraudulent mail
Sixbid outlines the following criteria to identify the fake emails:
- Serious auction houses do not send “Second Chance Offers” via email. So if you get one of these emails: Ignore them!
- These fraudulent emails are sent from the sender addresses […]@[..].bidserver.info, […]@[…]auction1.host or […]@numismatics.site
- For these fraudulent invoices, a bank in Belgium is indicated as bank account: it has been mentioned e.g. the “ING Belgium” or the “Belfius Banque” as well as the “HSBC UK Bank”
- You can recognize false invoices if you see a buyer’s fee of 2% (usually serious auction houses take 10-20%).
Make sure, that…
If you receive an invoice for a piece offered through Sixbid, please ensure:
1.) That the requested amount coincides with the hammer price
2.) That the email address of the auction house is correct
3.) That the account number is likely, for example, that the bank is located in the country where the auction house is established
4.) That the surcharge, insurance and shipping fees are equal to what you are used to from other invoices.
Caution! Do not be fooled if you send an enquiry to the fraudulent address and receive a supposedly reasonable answer. The scammers will contact you via email and reply in acceptable English.
New version of Sixbid more than two months ahead of schedule
Sixbid programmers have been working on a new version of the site for about a year. The launch was scheduled for August, the month in which traditionally the fewest auctions take place. In the light of recent events, Sixbid has decided to prepone the launch. Staff are working around the clock to bring the new, state-of-the-art security website online by early June.
The link to the Sixbid website is below.
