Ebay Account Hijacked

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Posted By: Eric B

I followed the earlier thread on this subject with interest, but did nothing since me Ebay account was OK. Until last night! My account was compromised and my password changed. I have an Auctiva account so I would suggest anyone who does to change your Ebay password immediately. It's just a matter of time.

On a side note: what are the potential losses to having your Ebay account taken over/ Besides the nuisance issue of someone buying or listing bogus items, they can't harm you financially, correct? Payments are made via Paypal with a separate password. The credit card information on-hand with Ebay only lists the last 4 didgits. Am I missing something?

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Posted By: Matt

They could leave negative feedback in your name, email buyers of yours to send payment to a different address, buy stuff on your behalf - any number of ways to mess you up.

My Trade/Sale Page

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Posted By: Jim VB

Eric,

I spent about 30 minutes in a live chat with an ebay rep after my incident. It was my impression that in many cases there was nothing done to actually compromise most of the accounts. However, ebay's security systems told them that some MAY have been compromised. He would not actually say this in so many words, but I was left with 2 thoughts. First was the idea that they do look at entry to accounts from multiple IPs. This could, for many people, be home, office, mobile and/or a snipe service. The rep did say, several times, that use of a snipe service should not trigger ebay's alerts. However I think he wasn't 100% sure.

More importantly, I think ebay has used these alerts to force some of us to change and strengthen our passwords. I admit I have not changed mine in 10+ years. Mine was so old it was 4 digits. They now require at least 6 digits and recommend use of letters and numbers.

I don't think there was an actual compromise of most accounts, just an ebay reaction to a feared alert.

The only concern is that if they continue to do it, you might lose an item you want if you're sniping. I was within 28 minutes of a set snipe when I got my ebay alert.

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Posted By: Mike

My account was compromised for the first time ever last night. It must be gavelsnipe. It is the only thing I am doing different than before.

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Posted By: Eric B

Mine was actually hijacked. Password was changed.

I thought about the part where they request a buyer to send payment to another address, but I didn't sell anything recently. The hijackers should have waited - maybe they will next time. So all sellers should change their password.

I think leaving bad feedback is part of the nuisance issue. Ebay would remove it.

I also have gavelsnipe. It could be that, but Auctiva had an announce break-in.

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Posted By: Kevin Struss

It happened to me last night also. I also use gavelsnipe. This is certainly the common thread.

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Posted By: Jim VB

When ebay thinks they detect a compromise, the first thing they do is go in and change the password. So finding your password changed only shows ebay changed it.



In my case I was on ebay, with my old password, when I got an email that email from ebay. Everything worked fine. Even if I closed ebay and went back in, I had access to everything. (I had checked the box "Keep me signed in for today.") Finally, I logged off and then couldn't get back on because my password had been changed... by ebay. I then had to select the "forgot password" procedure.



About 2 hours before I had also been on ebay, just searching, at the same time my snipe service had logged in and placed a handful of bids. I suspect access from two different IPs, at the same time, triggered something.



Ebay is reluctant to reveal exactly what triggers these alerts because they are afraid it would give too much info to hackers.

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Posted By: Dan Bretta

For what it's worth, after my account was 'hijacked' I changed my password and then updated my gavelsnipe with my new password, but ever since then gavelsnipe has not worked for me. I have tried to snipe twice since then and both failed. I think I'm going to cancel my gavelsnipe and then reopen a new gavelsnipe account and see if that works.

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Posted By: Anthony S.

Could someone please list the Ebay live help phone #?

The old Ebay account hijack (or whatever it is)just happened to me. They sent me the first notice explaining the situation, but never sent the follow up email with the instructions about how to unscrew things up.

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Posted By: Jim VB

Anthony,

Ebay live help is through the web site:

http://pages.ebay.com/help/confidence/ato-livehelp.html


But you don't need it. Try to log on. Enter your screen name. Click on "forgot password." They'll send you an email. Follow those instructions. Answer their questions and get a new password that way.


I'm beginning to suspect that there isn't really any "second, follow up email."

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Posted By: Anthony S.

Thanks Jim. I resisted the overwhelming temptation to change my password to "F***Ebay"

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Posted By: Jim VB

Well, you would remember it, but so might several thousand other users.

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Posted By: marshall barkman

Why does everyone have to use gavelsnipe? My snipe service has been ok and i have never had any problems.

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Posted By: Paul

Same thing just happened to me

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Posted By: John V

I also followed these threads. Then on Friday night, my Gavelsnipe bid worked as expected. This morning I received my eBay message. No harm done other than having to change my password.
I think eBay is trying to discourage snipe services.

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Posted By: Tim

I just finished working with Ebay to reset my password. I am also a user of Gavelsnipe. I hope Trae is able to resolve his issues soon.

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Posted By: dennis

i had the same issues and i use auctiva and gavelsnipe

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Posted By: Jim VB

I'm locked out again tonight and this time, my own advice doesn't work to change the password. It instantly said I've made too many attempts to log in.



I logged on to Live Help and was told I'm 67th in line with a wait time of 45 minutes to get a rep.





Great company, huh?

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Posted By: dennis

i just went thru this....my wait was only 28 minutes at first but it actually took less.

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Posted By: Eric B

I had to go through at 6:20 this evening. Was 2nd in line and waited 40 seconds.

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Posted By: Jason

It has nothing to do with snipe programs or a hack.

Ebay has tightened up its password requirements and this is their way of getting you to use a better password.

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Posted By: Eric B

Not so sure of that. The change process wouldn't work and I had to go through Account Security.

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Posted By: Dan Bretta

That really doesn't make a whole lot of sense that they would go about it this way. I really didn't make any more of a complex password than my last one...and actually it's probably an "easier" password.

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Posted By: Jason

When you consider how ebay works. It makes perfect sense that they would do something non-sensical.

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Posted By: Bill Cornell

"The behavior of any bureaucratic organization can best be understood by assuming that it is controlled by a secret cabal of its enemies." -> Robert Conquest

I like that one - covers most situations where you interact with a large entity. But I'd blame Gavelsnipe in this situation...



Bill

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Posted By: Fred C

ebay made me change my password one time . I figured out why they did this, it was because I was logging on in an area that was known for hijacking accounts. I changed my password and kept logging on from that area and they probably figured out that it was me to begin with and not somebody that was trying to hijack my account. It was more of an annoyance than anything else.