I might have been hijacked.

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Posted By: Lee Behrens

I received notice from ebay that my account was supended. This is the message I received:

Dear eBay User,

We recently noticed one or more attempts to login into your eBay
account from a foreign IP address and we have reasons to believe that
your account has been hijacked by a third party without your
authorization.

In order to protect your sensitive information or unauthorized listings we temporarily suspended your account for further investigations. To reactivate your account, click on the link below and confirm your identity by completing the secure form that will appear.


If you recently accessed your account while traveling, the unusual
login attempts may have been initiated by you.

Take our apologies for any inconvenience that this may cause.


Thank you

eBay Account Theft Prevention
http://cgi3.ebay.com//aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?VerifyIdentity&ssPageName=

The log in attempt was made from:

IP address: 205.188.209.166

ISP host: cache-dq04.proxy.aol.com

I would like to know about the IP address and the ISP, I have no clue how you guys check these. Is it possible this is another scam. My accoount is working when I wrote this.

Lee

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Posted By: MW

Lee,

It looks like a scam. Don't fill out any of the forms that are linked from the email.

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Posted By: Kevin Cummings

Lee:

Not sure if you already done this, but ebay can tell you whether you have a probelem or not:

"To report email requesting account information that you suspect was not sent by eBay send us the email with the complete message text and full header or forward the entire message to spoof@ebay.com using the forward function of your email program. When forwarding the message, do not change the subject line, send additional text, or forward the message as an attachment. Forwarding the message in this manner will allow us to review the message headers and any other information that may be attached to the email."

This ebay page has a lot more detail.
http://pages.ebay.com/help/confidence/isgw-account-theft-spoof.html

Kevin

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Posted By: Brian Weisner

Hi Lee,
It's a scam, I got the same email 5 times last week, as well as a new Paypal scam email. Just remember the Golden Rule...... Ebay will never ask for your confidential info in an email or link. Same goes for Paypal. These crooks aren't going away anytime soon, so only login on the official secure site. Be well Brian

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Posted By: runscott

I received this same msg about a month ago. Like all of these scams, it gives a link which is disguised as a legitimate ebay link, but which instead pops up a scammer's web-site which asks for all the info they need to hi-jack your account. I always go to the web-site and log in as something like "BITEME" with an equally rude password - all this info gets written to their files.

But when in doubt, ignore the emails. If ebay really planned on shutting you down, you would know it.

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Posted By: Lee Behrens

I sent it to Spoof and it came back as a scam. The strange thing is when I click on the link it comes up ebays home page. It sounds like a different link they you guys are getting.

Thanks for the help

Lee

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Posted By: Rob M

it's not a copy of eBay's home page?

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Posted By: Lee Behrens

It comes up different this morning, either ebay's page with an input error or a site that will not come up. I have no ideawhat it is doing but I changed my password again.

Lee

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Posted By: Rob M

....

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Posted By: Hankron

For Lee's peace of mind, I will repeat what others have on this thread: This email is just a scam and does not indicate that you have been hijacked. The email is trying to scarce you in order get you to give up your password, etc-- if you sent them your info, then you might get hijacked.

Rule of thumb: if you have questions or need to change/verify important info, don't follow any email links-- as they are often fake and send you do bogus sites. Go directly to the eBay site (typing in 'www.ebay.com' in your web browser) and check your status there. Once you are on the real eBay site, everything can be checked out ... This rule of thumb applies to all important sites when you are about to use sensitive information: credit card, paypal, credit card etc.

Also, the fake emails often say you have to act immediatly (right now!) or your site will be suspended. Real organizations don't act this way and give you due time to react. For example, if your credit card date on record is actually in error, eBay or PayPal or your internet server will give you a reasonable amount of time to correct it (say, a couple of days, at the least). So there is almost never a situation where you have to go and do something with your sensitive information this very second or something horrible will happen right away. There is always time to sit back, assess the situation, check into the situation and ask questions of others in order to make sure things are on the up and up. Never unduly rush when it involves your personal information.

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Posted By: Hankron

While I'm on the point and some readers may not be familiar with the subject, I will add to useful practices that will help prevent hijacks, stealing of stuff, etc.

1) Use different passwords for different sites. This means that if someone steals your eBay password, they don't automatically have the password to you internet server, paypal, Mastronet, etc.

2) Don't use simple or obvious passwords ('mypassword,' 'billy', 'abc123' etc). If you can, use numbers and symbols, etc. The more complicated, obscure your password, the harder to steal.

3) Change your passwords with some regularity. I'm not saying change them every Tuesday, but after a period of time (8 months, a year), note that it may be time to go through and change passwords.

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Posted By: Hankron

One very last thing:

If you suddenly have fear that you did something stupid with your information or fear your there's something fishy about your eBay site, go directly to www.eBay.com on your browser and change your password right away. This way, the old password is automatically obsolete and of no use to anyone who may have it and, as already noted, it's good practice to change passwords regularly anyway.

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Posted By: Jeff Lichtman

Lee (and the rest of the board): it's very easy to spot an ebay or aol scam: if the address that either sent you the email or the address where you're supposed to send your info does not begin with aol or ebay right after the www, it's a scam. Simple as that.