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eBay warns of fake email

The auction giant is warning members about a faked email that appears to come from the company that asks people to send in personal information.

eBay is warning members about a faked email that appears to come from the leading auction company that asks people to send in personal information.

The email warns people that they have a problem with their registration and asks them to update their personal information via a link in the email, eBay said in a message on its announcements board late Wednesday. The link takes people to a page that looks like eBay but is not located on the company's Web site.

eBay posted the warning after being alerted to the email by one of its Power Sellers, company spokesman Henry Gomez said. Gomez didn't know whether any other members had recently received the email, but he said eBay had seen and warned people of similar fake messages in the past.

"As far as I can tell, this is pretty isolated," Gomez said. "But we thought we would go ahead and remind folks to be more careful."

eBay is investigating the email and will take appropriate legal action if necessary, Gomez said.

Earlier this year, ReverseAuction.com settled cases filed by eBay and the Federal Trade Commission over an email it sent eBay members last year. The FTC and eBay claimed that ReverseAuction had spammed eBay members with an email that appeared to come from--or was endorsed by--eBay. ReverseAuction agreed to pay eBay $1.2 million as part of its settlement with the auction giant.