SEQUIM — John Browne is a savvy Internet user who until last week considered himself immune to the myriad attempts at online fraud.

Browne, a 48-year-old resident of Blyn, has spent “countless hours” perfecting his strategies on eBay, an online auction house.

His wife, Sandy, says he’s bought everything from collectible miniature cars to large parts for his real vehicle using eBay’s convenient auction service.

And when he recently received an e-mail — ostensibly from eBay — soliciting personal information, he immediately recognized it as a scam, Browne said.

“I knew that one was bogus — it didn’t even really look like an eBay site,” he said.

Start of a nightmare

But then he saw an e-mail last week from PayPal, an online payment service that allows users to send and receive money over the Internet. And that one looked legit.

It wasn’t, and that’s where the nightmare started for the couple.

“I can’t believe I fell for it,” Browne said.

But PayPal spokeswoman Amanda Pires can.

“Oh, these people are really good — they’ve learned how to completely duplicate our fonts, colors and logo,” Pires said.

Industry analysts have begun calling fake e-mail solicitations “spoofs.”

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The rest of the story appears in Monday’s Peninsula Daily News.