Change your Ebay password regularly

[Nathan Flowers]

I just spent 30 minutes on live chat and on the phone with Ebay's account fraud team regarding some unauthorized user from Australia listing 58! dvd sets in 1 day auctions under my ebay account.


I guess my 12 digit password was not strong enough (since I haven't been snookered by any phishing sites), so I've increased it to over 30 characters with letters, numbers, and punctuation. I encourage you all to do the same, if not better.

 

[Maj.Nick Danger]

Just changed mine recently after a year and a half with no problems. No problems now either. I think it was a lucky guess on the part of the hacker. Unless this hacker has some kind of password generator software. [huh]

 

[scotrace]

If this can happen to you, it can happen t anyone. I'm sure you are very careful! Rather disturbing...

 

[cookie]

eBay - when something goes wrong

Sorry to hear about the identity fraud Zohar. It has not started yet as these junior Mafiosi put there criminal minds to work instead of getting a real job!

I just recently had a big problem with my eBay where it would not return when you clicked. It cost me a nice RLPL tie I wanted especially as the refresh button does not work either. They have now given my a strategy to fix it - one page long.

But getting someone to take my problem seriously has cost me like 6 emails as they all stuffed and shuffled around. Poor service.

C

 

[Andykev]

It is a good idea, I had it happen also.

Is it just me, or does anyone else find Ebay entirely "un-user friendly" when you try to get answers, report a problem, etc.

Late last year, I had someone use my ID, so Ebay locked my account. It was very frustrating to have to find out what went on, and how to fix it. I think I finally was able to speak to a "human", but it took forever. Notice, their drop down menu for reporting problems seems to be difficult, by design maybe.

 

[Chanfan]

Certainly a longer password, with mixed in non-alpha characters, can help. Passphrases are a good idea.

From what I've seen, most cases of passwords being stolen - especially if it's 12 characters long - are either due to using something guessable, or that you can find out about a person (birthdates, names of family, social security number, zip code), or are due to being infected with keyloggers / keystroke monitors.

Be sure to scan your computer for viruses / malware, and try and use several different scanners.

Otherwise, if they did brute force crack it, another thing one can do to make passwords safer is to avoid using actual words (anything you can find in a dictionary).

And even if you mix in numbers, people tend to get lazy - the most common numerical mix is to place a "1" at the end of a normal password. Second most common is to put it at the start. Password cracking programs take that into account!

 

[K.D. Lightner]

Thanks for the warning.

Some years ago, I fell for a phishing email, gave out info for Paypal. Someone commandeered it and was able to guess my Ebay password (I was dumb enough to have the same password for both). The next thing I knew, someone was buying stuff off ebay and putting it on my account. Nothing had gone through yet, luckily I caught it, was able to contact Ebay and my bank. They suspended my acccount, I got a new user i.d. and password.

Sorry to hear this is happening, someone had found a way to get into things without phishing. I watch my Paypal account daily when ordering items to ensure nothing is on there that shouldn't be.

karol

 

[Nathan Flowers]

.

I always ebay from my mac at home, so I'm not too worried about keyloggers or malware. It is connected wirelessly, but I'm running WPA2 with a huge passphrase and mac address filtering. It's possible to crack wpa2 though. The password was something similar to d3at4g8te941, so it would have taken a while to brute force, and even then, wouldn't ebay lock you out after so many attempts at getting in?

The more I think about it.... my sniping service. Somebody that has access to the server may have stolen/sold a password or two for some extra bucks.

 

[cookie]

Thanks for you input Zohar and other Lounge Lizards

It is only through sharing our common (bad) experiences that we will be able to impede (not prevent - I daresay) the cyber Mafiosi.

I remember a couple of years ago I spent nothing on my IT and had a bucket shop computer for AUD1000 that gave me no probs and had a simple Norton anti-nasty system.

Nowadays I spend Ks each year with my consultant trying to stay one step ahead of these sons of their mothers....

One step ahead ....only one step ahead...staying one step ahead of you!!!! (Split Enz right???)

 

[CanadaDoll]

Thanks for the head's up on this one! I haven't had any problems, but an ounce of prevention, and all that, I've just changed my password to something much longer.

 

[nightandthecity]

I always ebay from my mac at home, so I'm not too worried about keyloggers or malware. It is connected wirelessly, but I'm running WPA2 with a huge passphrase and mac address filtering. It's possible to crack wpa2 though. The password was something similar to d3at4g8te941, so it would have taken a while to brute force, and even then, wouldn't ebay lock you out after so many attempts at getting in?

The more I think about it.... my sniping service. Somebody that has access to the server may have stolen/sold a password or two for some extra bucks.

which sniping service do you use? I always thought my password was pretty invulnerable but ya got me worried now.....

 

[nightandthecity]

Is it just me, or does anyone else find Ebay entirely "un-user friendly" when you try to get answers, report a problem, etc.

Late last year, I had someone use my ID, so Ebay locked my account. It was very frustrating to have to find out what went on, and how to fix it. I think I finally was able to speak to a "human", but it took forever. Notice, their drop down menu for reporting problems seems to be difficult, by design maybe.

yes, ebay is very user-unfriendly - especially for sellers. For one of the biggest ops on the web they are basically a bunch of cheapskates. All expenses are kept to the minimum and the moment something goes wrong (which happens a lot) there is no proper system in place to deal with it.

I've pretty much had it upto here with them and am thinking seriously of jacking it in, as a seller anyway. For careful buyers it remains an unequalled source of bargains.

Of late I've been scammed for £365 by a chargeback fraudster and I've had a crazy woman come screaming round my house, but more run of the mill gripes include: paying for picture services that don't work, paying for listings that don't appear for 24 hours, listings pulled at the last minute because a robot decides they broke some arcane rule, and no possibility of discussing the issue with a live human.

There are long term serious issues which ebay resolutely refuses to address like the failure of the feedback system, and the total failure to seriously tackle major issues like non-paying bidders, chargeback fraudsters, and sellers of counterfeit goods.

Ah well, better go back there and list some more old tat....

 

[Nathan Flowers]

www.hammersnipe.com

 

[Pilgrim]

Thanks for the reminder - I just updated my PW to one that's more complex.

 

[catsmeow]

It's a good idea, even though annoying, to change your passwords. I've had problems also and know of others that have been targeted. Once they find out your email address, it becomes a problem.
I hate these ebay scammers.