The '
Times Online' is reporting on what seems to be a rash of eBay-account hijackings with a boatload of fraud to match. There are apparently 20 million British eBay registrants, roughly a third of the population, and crooks are taking advantage of many of them by
stealing their accounts and posting bogus items for sale. Once a sale is complete, the crooks take off with the proceeds.
By stealing another user's account, a fraudster can get around the ratings system that many eBayers use to determine whether a given auction is real or a fake. Auctions may appear to be hosted by a user who has completed many successful transactions, while in reality that user has probably been locked out of their account and has no idea about the auction. The article mentions one account stealer who had snagged over 30 accounts from others and was using them to sell cars, typically the most expensive items brokered on eBay.
The article isn't too specific on how exactly these eBay users' accounts are stolen, but presumably it's accomplished by
password-snagging e-mail scams, also known as "
phishing." Or if people use really obvious passwords (that include their name, for example, or, the word password), then it's easy for scammers to just guess their way into people's accounts.
Since eBay itself doesn't offer much in the way of protection for buyers or sellers, the "winners" of the auctions may actually find themselves financially duped even worse than the supposed sellers, who only have to get their accounts back and clear their names.
So far, the problem seems to be a bigger deal in the U.K., but there is no reason this same scam can't make its way Stateside, so what can you do? Well, as a seller, you can
choose a strong password to keep others from just being able to easily turn your account on you. And, as always, watch out for
phishing scams, where official looking e-mails trick you into typing in your username and password on an unauthorized site. If everyone followed these simple guidelines, eBay and other account infiltration scams would be minimized. .
If you're buying anything expensive on eBay, make sure to get in touch with the seller, and, if anything smells shady -- like, they don't really know all that much about the 18-century armoire you're about to buy -- then don't click that "Bid Now!" button.
From
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