Has anyone else received an email - invitation to do a paid discussion on selling goods

[hendrika667]

I just received an email from Jo Darcy on behalf of Ebay inviting me to do a paid discussion on selling goods online.  Will be done through SPARKLER who are conducting a survey on Ebay's behalf.  Reward is a $150 EGift voucher.  I'm just wondering if this is legit?

[collect247]

Did you receive the message in ebay or just your personal email account?

Sparkler is a market research company in the UK.

[enigmabear]

Not got one and never heard of it, but personally I would'nt be partaking 

[hendrika667]

In my personal email account

[collect247]

Unless you receive anything to do with ebay through ebay then as bear said I wouldn't participate also not trying to scare you but I would be changing the pass word to your email account as it could be scammers just trying to get your info?

What I always do when I receive a suspicious email I click onto the junk file and then click block and when I do that the email account of the sender shows and if I see that it's from for example aundhdgd5nnns@jgdjjbjbb.dhusdu or some weird email address I then click block.

[twyngwyn]

if it's not in ebay messages....then it's fake

[enigmabear]

Yep, the sender's email is usually something like scammer@scammyMcScamface.doodlenoddle666.com

[digital*ghost]

Sparkler has eBay listed as one of the brands they work with, so it's possible it's legit, though a compensation of $150 sounds unusually high. More often that kind of compensation would be "chance to win" rather than granted to all participants. (The most I've ever received is a $50 Visa gift card, and I had to go into the city and demo a website live for about an hour, with three people taking my feedback while I sat there clicking links and telling them how useful / interesting it was  ). 

Messages not being copied in your ebay account inbox doesn't automatically = fake, especially if it's not eBay sending you the email invite (which it wouldn't be if Sparkler are conducting the research).

If there are no clear indicators, email address looks legit but nothing to really confirm its legitimacy, best thing to do is contact Sparkler directly. 

[countessalmirena]

    ‘How interesting and useful,’ said digital*ghost politely.

[shoppingbag*]

Personally, I wouldn't touch anything that I received via email unless it appeared in my eBay account as well. I just wouldn't take the chance even if I thought it could be genuine. But maybe I am just paranoid. It's up to you what you do.