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Well, here’s a wierd one… Somehow my eBay account got hacked today and someone listed about 45 auctions of handbags, all with Buy Now options on them. I happened to check my email shortly after the auctions were posted, so I was lucky enough to get in & cancel most of them before anyone bid. Obviously I changed my eBay password straight away, but one person managed to jump in with a Buy Now and paid for the auction with Paypal to some yahoo.com address.

To make sure it was all dealt with as quickly as possible, I used the Live Chat feature to contact the security team at eBay and was amazed at the quality of response I got from them.

When I first opened the chat window, the messge at the bottom told me the approximate wait time was 14 minutes, so I waited. Exactly 14 minutes later (almost to the second), the chat started. I had pre-typed the first couple of entries before the connection started. Here’s the full chatlog :

While waiting for your chat to begin, you can start typing in your question. To help us address your questions as quickly as possible, please include your email address, eBay User ID and any other pertinent information such as item numbers, error messages, etc. (if available). We may also require your name, address and phone number for verification purposes.

Your entries will become visible to the agent once they have joined the chat. Thank you for your patience.
Kansalis: Hi…. I have received around 40 emails of items which have been listed on my account without my knowledge. I have cancelled all the auctions now and changed my password, but one of the items was bought by someonewith “buy now” (item 190033043755). I have contacted the buyer to inform him/her of the fraudulent listings already. I have also changed my password so this shouldn’t happen again.
Kansalis: The buyer has already sent the payment to the paypal account listed in the auction, which obviously doesn’t belong to me…. Could you please assist them to recover their payment? Also I would like to have the associated fees refunded to my account please.
Your chat session has started..
Golden G.: Hello and thank you for contacting Account Security Live Help, my name is Golden. Please give me a moment to review what you have already typed.
Golden G.: Thank you for your patience. In order to help you, I need to verify your information. Could you please provide me with your name, address, and telephone number? (Note that eBay would never ask you for sensitive information like passwords and credit card numbers)
Kansalis: sure
Kansalis: Jeff Mitchell
Kansalis: **home address removed**
Kansalis: **phone number removed**
Golden G.: thank you Jeff. Now I need to ask you a question only you can answer to ensure you are the true account owner. Can you provide me with the first e-mail address you registered on eBay?
Kansalis: wow, I’m not sure I can
Golden G.: Any old email addresses you might remember?
Kansalis: **email removed**?
Kansalis: **email removed**?
Golden G.: do you remember having a gmail email?
Kansalis: **email removed**
Golden G.: Thank you for verifying yourself. It appears that your account may have been accessed by an unauthorized third party. Did you receive an email either in your My Messages or personal email inbox with a link or button in it?
Kansalis: no not at all
Golden G.: You may also receive a spoof email in your My Messages or your regular email that has a respond now button or other sort of link in it. If you are unsure about the communication, you should report this or any other email you have questions about to spoof@ebay.com. To better protect yourself from spoof emails, you may want to consider downloading our eBay toolbar. (Not compatible with MAC) To learn more:

http://pages.ebay.com/ebay_toolbar/
Golden G.: eBay will never ask you to sign in to view an auction on eBay.com. You may be asked to sign in at several other points, including accessing certain categories, but never to view an auction.

Golden G.: Second Chance Offers will always appear in your My Messages. eBay will never send a Second Chance Offer email with the subject line “Question from eBay Member.” Any other email sent to your registered eBay email address from eBay that affects your account will also appear in My Messages.

Please be cautious about emails you receive in your personal email inbox that appear to be from eBay such as PowerSeller invites, updates to your billing information, or a warning that you may be suspended if you don’t confirm your account information.

Golden G.: I can tell you that billing, credit card, and bank account information is stored on a separate and secure server and cannot be viewed by anyone, even if they accessed your eBay account.
Kansalis: I’m very careful with URLs
Golden G.: All fraudulent items have been removed and credited to your ebay account. A notification has been sent to any bidders regarding the situation. Regularly changing your e-mail password is important. If a 3rd party has access to your email account, they could easily access your eBay account again by using the eBay ‘Forgot Password’ feature.

Have you changed your e-mail password for **ebay mail removed**?
Kansalis: no, I’ll do that right now
Golden G.: Thank you. I’ll be happy to wait while you make the changes, please let me know when you are finished!
Kansalis: That’s done
Kansalis: I already had the interface open
Golden G.: Thank you. Your account has been secured and is now active. You will be receiving a temporary password shortly after this chat is over to your email. Please change the temporary password once you are in your eBay account to a more secure password using a mix of letters and numbers. I’m glad I was able to help you today. When you close this chat window, you will be asked to fill out a survey. I would appreciate your feedback. Before we end our chat, is there anything else I can help you with?
Kansalis: yes please
Kansalis: will the person who bought one of th eitems be refunded?
Kansalis: also, how do I go about cancelling the aution which has been bought?
Golden G.: A notification has been sent to them as well to contact ebay directly to see what options they have.
Golden G.: I have already cancelled it
Kansalis: Ah ok, thankyou
Golden G.: You’re welcome! Have a great day and thank you for using eBay!
Kansalis: oh one last thing
Golden G.: Take care
Golden G.: sure
Kansalis: will my account charges be removed too?
Golden G.: All fraudulent items have been removed and credited to your ebay account. A notification has been sent to any bidders regarding the situation.
Kansalis: Excellent thank you very much for your help
Golden G.: You’re welcome Jeff
Golden G.: Take care
Your chat has ended. Please click the Quit button

All of the comments from Golden G were obviously scripted and copy/pasted from their system, but it was so fast I could hardly type two words before he’d pasted something else in the window. It was almost as if he’d been reading my mind.

As promised, all the auctions had been removed and all fees refunded before I even had a chance to log back into my account and click on my eBay inbox.

For anyone who has been dubious about using eBay in the past because of fraud, I really wouldn’t worry about it! If this is the kind of response you get when something dodgy happens, then why would you ever buy anything anywhere else?

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