watch out for promotion emails .....

provides a link like this

http://www.ebay.com/community/recognition/fidelityPromotion.htm

but

http://www.ebay.com@68.161.231.55:12123/community/recognition/orangeStar.jpg

links to this ... try a dummy account and password and no errors

I don't quite see what you're getting at.

Second link just shows an orange star with 'fidelity' written on it. Nothing else is on the page.

Typo ....

Look here

http://www.ebay.com@68.161.231.55:12123/community/recognition/

and here

http://www.ebay.com@68.161.231.55:12123/community/recognition/Sign%20In.htm

The point is that it links to a non ebay address, but fools you into thinking it is.

clicky

clicky

Search results for: 68.161.231.55

OrgName: Verizon Internet Services
OrgID: VRIS
Address: 1880 Campus Commons Dr
City: Reston
StateProv: VA
PostalCode: 20191
Country: US

NetRange: 68.160.0.0 - 68.163.255.255
CIDR: 68.160.0.0/14
NetName: VIS-68-160
NetHandle: NET-68-160-0-0-1
Parent: NET-68-0-0-0-0
NetType: Direct Allocation
NameServer: NSDC.BA-DSG.NET
NameServer: GTEPH.BA-DSG.NET
Comment:
RegDate: 2002-08-30
Updated: 2003-07-18

NOCHandle: ZV20-ARIN
NOCName: Verizon Internet Services
NOCPhone: +1-703-295-4583
NOCEmail: noc@gnilink.net

OrgAbuseHandle: VISAB-ARIN
OrgAbuseName: VIS Abuse
OrgAbusePhone: +1-703-295-4583
OrgAbuseEmail: abuse@verizon.net

OrgTechHandle: ZV20-ARIN
OrgTechName: Verizon Internet Services
OrgTechPhone: +1-703-295-4583
OrgTechEmail: noc@gnilink.net

I ended up here - http://www.acme.com/

A URL of

"http://www.ebay.com@68.161.231.55:12123/community/recognition/"

is indeed a trick. It's saying use "www.ebay.com" as a username for the actual URL of http://68.161.231.55.

It's more likely to confuse people if you use the decimal DWORD version of the IP address. For example 192.168.1.10 becomes 3232235786 and the link would be http://www.ebay.com@3232235786. Fools a lot more people done that way...

Reported it to Verizon @ 1:00am last night ... lets see what they have to say :)

Fortunately using decimal IP address respresentation doesn't work with name-based virtual-hosting, so 99% of people can't do it that way.