After 15 yrs on ebay, acct. got hacked...

[myredracer]

Sure seems to be a whole lot of internet security problems going around lately. This is probably a bit of a rant, but if anyone has a bright idea on how to stop this and prevent it from happening again, would like to hear.

Over the past 8 days, my ebay account keeps getting hacked into and have had 8 cases opened against me for electronics items not received ranging from about $25 to $250. Things is, I have not sold a dang thing on ebay for 2 years! Have also have some messages through ebay from buyers wondering where the item is and what the tracking no. is. Buyers have been (supposedly) from around the world - last 2 from Hungary and California. Nothing has appeared in my paypal record on any of these.

Have contacted ebay twice in the past 2 days and they said they fixed everything. Reset my ebay, paypal and personal email passwords so they shouldn't be able to do anything. But in the past 2 days, have had another case opened and several more messages from buyers. I have no idea how they can do this despite ebay supposedly fixing it and changing my passwords.

Phoned ebay again today and got shuffled from dep't. to dep't. and ended with someone who said they will open up an investigation and get back to me in 2-3 days.

I'm really worried that whoever is behind this could try and access my paypal account months down the road, like they do with credit cards. Am wondering if I should change my paypal account info. and my ebay username and account info. Or will the crooks still be able to get to me?

Did the crooks possibly take advantage of a momentary breach in our internet security? Our ISP has changed security software providers in the past month or so and this is the only possibility I can think of.

Grrr.... The internet is getting to be a more and more dangerous place all the time.

[myredracer]

Just thought I would update on what happened with my account being hacked.

As of about 2 weeks ago, I thought things had finally been taken care of. But no....

On Aug. 11th, I got this message from ebay in response to a case opened on the same day for something I allegedly sold to someone:

"We’ve issued a full refund of US $27.99 on Aug 11, 2015 to the buyer as it appears your selling account was compromised. You will not be asked to reimburse eBay for this amount."

And then yesterday I got this message from ebay:

"We issued a partial refund of US $19.99 to gman****** for this case (**********). When we refund a buyer for a case, you still need to pay your eBay reimbursement charge. Please pay by adding funds to your PayPal account."

What the fork?? My account gets hacked and causes me no end of grief and now ebay wants me to pay a reimbursement charge??? Are they serious??? My account is still shut down unless I contact ebay once again and reset my password. I have reset it so many times now I have a sheet full of scratched out passwords. :M:M

Good thing I removed the link to my Paypal account otherwise ebay would have grabbed the money regardless.

"Account takeovers" as ebay calls them have been going on for years. Why can't they fix this? Amazon doesn't have these sorts of issues.

[p220sigman]

That does suck. Also for security questions you have to set up, for me, I never answer those truthfully. I have answers that I always use for typical questions so I can remember them, but they have absolutely no basis in reality or my life.

[GMandJM]

Presume that any information that WAS there has been obtained by your hacker. Change anything that was there prior to...well....this minute?

Yeah, I can see you not wanting to lose 600 positive feedbacks. I didn't have much to lose in that department.

[myredracer]

GMandJM wrote:
Wow..that is just wild.

Did you also re-set the security questions and check for associated (not yours) e-mail addresses and phone numbers that might have gotten attached to your account.

I admire your tenacity. If it had been that difficult to clear up my hacked account, I might have just thrown in the towel or gotten a new username/account. Guess it's more a principle (pal?) kinda thing at this point, eh?

No kidding. What a PITA. Should be able to do something like this in one or two calls. Don't know where the call centers are but some of the people (kids to me, lol) on the other end were hard to understand.

Was starting to wonder if I would have to close my ebay acct. and start a new one from scratch, but would have lost nearly 600 feedbacks (at 100%) and didn't want to lose that.

Shoot, now that you mention it, I need to fix the security question as the one that should still work doesn't. The only way it would work to change the phone number on the account would be to use one of our cell phone numbers I guess.

[GMandJM]

Wow..that is just wild.

Did you also re-set the security questions and check for associated (not yours) e-mail addresses and phone numbers that might have gotten attached to your account.

I admire your tenacity. If it had been that difficult to clear up my hacked account, I might have just thrown in the towel or gotten a new username/account. Guess it's more a principle (pal?) kinda thing at this point, eh?

[myredracer]

After what seems like umpteen chats with ebay in the past week, the problem appears to have been fixed. Got shuffled 'round and 'round between different dept's explaining the same issue over and over. Lost track of how many times they asked for my first and last name... Grrr.

It was an internal ebay issue and not a virus or malware on my PC.

Tried to log into ebay today and couldn't. My acct. got locked down because of an unauthorized login attempt from another country today or yesterday. So reset my ebay password for the 4th time. @#$%!

Received another case opened message yesterday, but turns out it was an item I previously allegedly sold last week. More time and dept's today (including a redial because the line dropped out) to get it removed. My selling page now says I have sold 30 items in July but have sold nothing in 2 years. After removing all the items from my selling page, they say I owe 5 cents for listing fees. Pffft. Yet another call to make.

Several of the cases opened were for the same item and ebay says that shouldn't be able to happen.

No message from a buyer or a case opened message today so I am hoping this is fixed for good now. Still no idea how it happened.

[GMandJM]

mikim wrote:
I would recommend that you delete ALL of your accounts and then unplug from the Internet for awhile.....

🙂

Also, Bank of America credit cards have a "shop safe" feature where they will give you an alternate credit card number, CVV and expiry date of your choice. It can be used only one place and you can say what credit limit you want on it.

Kinda nice for I'net transactions (Amazon and the like). Not so good at places where you have to show your card when you do in-store pick up of merchandise or services purchased on line..

[mikim]

I would recommend that you delete ALL of your accounts and then unplug from the Internet for awhile.....

As far as Security, I recommend ESET NOD32 for anti virus and then we also use Malwarebytes Anti Malware and CCleaner. The last two have free versions.

Passwords should contain at least 15 characters and not have any words that can be found in the dictitionary. Caps/special characters and numbers should be used.

[myredracer]

coolmom42 wrote:

TucsonJim wrote:
I would certainly change your PayPal password and make it very tough to crack. Also, if you have your PayPal account linked to any bank accounts or credit cards, I'd break those links for a while.

This.

If you have any money in your Paypal account, take it out. And if you have money in the linked bank account, take to a minimum. Change your linked account to a different one if you don't want to take that money out of the current one. If you have a linked credit card, remove it from Paypal.

I have my Paypal linked to a checking account at a small credit union, where I keep less than $100 at all times. My main banking is at a totally different bank.
And watch ALL your accounts carefully for fraudulent activity.

Great advice. Have unlinked my paypal account now. Have a personal bank account that we don't use much with a small balance in it. I thought you had to have either a bank account or CC linked to a paypal account?

DW is an accountant and checks our account balances daily. Can't even go to McDonalds without her knowing, lol.

Just got another message today from an ebay buy that is wondering where his item is. Clearly ebay has not fixed anything.

[coolmom42]

TucsonJim wrote:
I would certainly change your PayPal password and make it very tough to crack. Also, if you have your PayPal account linked to any bank accounts or credit cards, I'd break those links for a while.

This.

If you have any money in your Paypal account, take it out. And if you have money in the linked bank account, take to a minimum. Change your linked account to a different one if you don't want to take that money out of the current one. If you have a linked credit card, remove it from Paypal.

I have my Paypal linked to a checking account at a small credit union, where I keep less than $100 at all times. My main banking is at a totally different bank.
And watch ALL your accounts carefully for fraudulent activity.

[Bumpyroad]

GMandJM wrote:
What kind of "small account", Bumpy? .

the maximum that you wouldn't mind having stolen. 🙂
I also use for "strange" purchases a different credit card with a low limit. they just tried to bounce it up and provided a phone number to call to reduce it back and to stop them from raising the limit in the future.
bumpy

[GMandJM]

Hadn't even been on eBay since I got my new laptop. eBay said it was because my ancient account predated their security question protocol and I never set up any security questions.

You're preaching to the choir on firewalls and anti-virus software, My Friend. 🙂

[wa8yxm]

It is possible that what has been "Hacked" is your computer and the hackers may have installed software that lets them read your activity so they can copy your passwords and such even as you change them.

I am not expert enough to tell you what to do to fix it other than seek professional assistance in finding out if this is the case.

Recommendation: Run a very good fire wall (I use the best) do not trust your routers to protect you.. Run one Anti Virus full time and at least two more and avoid McAffee.. I also avoid Norton though I'm told he is a good guy.
(McAffee, Last I knew the person was wanted on criminal charges NOT related to hacking and the company was doing things that should have made them "Wanted" as well but of course.. The government does not treat hacking as a serious crime unless you try to hack them, Never mind it costs us billions of dollars the government keeps thinking it's teens writing KILROY WAS HERE on things.. Additional comments will get me in trouble with someone so I'll stop now. )

[carpetguy2]

Ebay app has some major security issues aswell
Every time the application was installed. MY phone alerts me there's a security issues and promptly tells me to remove it.
Now I just save the bookmark on my phone