Chinese eBay Scammers

[wigglewhiz]

So, here's a little heads-up for those of you out there - of which I'm sure there are many - who have an eBay account.

As you may have read, my email account got hacked on Friday. (I got it back this morning - yay! ) Furthermore, my eBay account also got hacked. And that's all - NOT my credit cards, NOT my Paypal, nothing. Just my email and eBay accounts (which, incidentally, had the same password. Genius. Needless to say, they now have completely disparate, random, convoluted number-and-words string passwords.)

As it turns out, it was some Chinese scam - you may have seen items listed from Hong Kong, etc - they usually are from a "company" or seller that has little or no feedback - but many, many items. The listings are impressive - they've paid for plenty of pictures, and bold text, and highlights and gallery fees and whatnot. Mmmm. This is because they have stolen someone's eBay account and used their "credit card details on file" to OPEN NEW ACCOUNTS AND LIST THESE ITEMS. Thus, charging the listing fees to the hapless hackee. Bar stewards.

Mercifully, because this was attached to my main (geekily obsessively frequently checked) email account, I spotted it immediately and notified both MSN and eBay. eBay were a bunch of useless idiots in as much as they suggested I email them from my email addy listed to my account (I CAN'T, IT WAS STOLEN - CAN'T YOU LOSERS READ?! ), and actually sent an email containing a password re-set link..... TO MY HACKED ACCOUNT. Absolutely DIVINELY inspired, that one. <sigh> Still, to be fair, they shut down the hacker's listings immediately and have refunded me all of their incurred fees before they ever had a chance to hit my card. In all, I guess I'm satisfied with their response.

However! I wanted to alert y'all to this - I have never, EVER responded to a phishing email. I am technologically savvy enough to spot them a mile off. I don't always report them, but I NEVER click on ANY links in any emails from any senders. My passwords for most things are different - NOW my passwords for EVERYTHING are different, and even my secret question answers ridiculously encoded. I am very concerned that this can happen WITHOUT you being daft enough to be caught by a phisher. And it's not viral either - I have full anti-virus and firewall software, ranks in the top three in reviews, newly installed and updated and it keeps me safe. I don't download from strange sites. I rarely download at all, in fact. And yet these scammers still found me, found a way to break my passwords, and if I hadn't responded so fast would have cost me £150 (roughly $300) in eBay fees in that ONE DAY that they had my account.

I'm suspecting it may be because my eBay account has lain dormant for a little while - I haven't sold anything since 2005, and haven't bought anything for a good few months. I can't imagine how they found me, but they found me.

[wigglewhiz]

So guys, be vigilant with your eBay accounts. And for the love of all that's decent, please think twice before buying from any Chinese zero-feedback seller with lots of items in fancy listings with suspiciously close Buy It Now prices... you may be helping swindle some poor little sucker.

[mandyt]

Ebay accounts are not safe.
Someone had hacked in to my friends Ebay & was selling a tractor or something at £4.000 on her account.
They had changed her pass word & everything.
We laugh about it now but if someone had bought it, it would not have been funny.

Someone cleared my shimmy shop bank account of all funds about 2 year ago.

This is the best I got charge for fireworks in China & my husband signed for them, he’s never been to China.

[shimarella]

Yikes, that freaks me out ( abt my Ebay account). I got screwed by a China-based seller last year. Ebay shut down the seller AFTER I had sent payment. My complaint of fraud to Ebay and Paypal is well over six months old and I have received no answers.

[wigglewhiz]

Jings, Mandy - that's terrible! I shudder to think what your friend would have been charged in eBay fees if that sale had gone through. And your Shimmy Shop account - The fireworks one is bizarre!

Shimarella, that sounds very much like it could have been the same (or similar) scammers. eBay didn't get you your money back?! Dammit, if they know these people do this why can't they prevent it?

[phillyraqs]

My ebay account was hacked about 6 months ago too - I noticed when 400 pairs of "Prada" sunglasses were listed as for sale by me and I got all the email notices. Same thing - all were buy it now for short time periods.

Ebay immediately shut down the listings and returned my money. But not before 20 people bought the glasses, and then started emailing me to complain. Ebay was great to me, but I don't think the buyers had such good experiences (since I still hear from one).

My paypal account was also frozen till I could reactivate it - apparently, they were trying to hack into my paypal account as well. Definitely be sure to have different passwords for email, paypal, ebay, etc - great reminder, though I am so sorry to hear that these scammers got you too!

[wigglewhiz]

Well, luckily I'm not out any money, and the inconvenience was only fairly minor.

I'm VERY disappointed that eBay aren't as good for the poor customers who get duped by these scammers. I mean, sure they were quick to shut these guys down on my account - but the next? The next one where someone hasn't used their eBay for a while and the email address registered to it isn't their main one? What about them? And what about all the luckless buyers, why aren't they protected to the same degree and have their monies refunded right back? eBay and Paypal make a big deal about their fraud protection... and yet it seems to be sadly lacking.

Got some email nonsense today from eBay in response to the email I sent them about this person's unauthorised use of my credit card. Some RUBBISH automated response from them about how they put some other card NOT in my name onto my account, but not to worry *my* details are safe. This is completely false from what I can see - the emails I received from the system were about "new accounts" being set up "using your credit card details on file", NOT anything about adding new cards to my account. <sigh> I'm willing to chalk this one up to incompetence on eBay's part, rather than actual deception, but I'm not happy. They're CLEARLY aware of this scam and it's ilk, and I think not doing enough to protect account holders and buyers.