Ebay Getting Attacked?

RawAlex · 01-30-2003

I was recently looking to purchase a piece of equipment, not the cheapest thing, all considered, but commonly enough sold on Ebay (usually 5-10 active auctions on this item... retails for a couple of thousand)

It seems that Ebay has a real problem with people hacking into other user's accounts and using those accounts to run auctions. "Star" members, people with very good rankings, are getting their accounts taken over and bogus auctions are being put up for the item I was looking for. Often, the seller would have a "buy it now" price that was a little under the market value, making it a good deal.

So far, two out of three sellers I have contacted have turned out to be frauds. Ebay has cancelled their auctions, and the accounts disactivated.

The common thread is "free" mail accounts such as hotmail, yahoo, and such. It looks like these accounts are expiring, and people are taking them over, using them to get the password from Ebay, and then putting up bogus auctions.

From what I can tell, the easiest way to spot them is people that will only accept wire transfers or similar types of transactions. They will not accept escrow accounts, nor will they accept paypal (which is useless for me, as I will explain in a second).

If you are doing the Ebay thing, watch yourself closely, it is really getting quite scammy out there.

Now, for paypal...

If you are using a visa card on your paypal account, and have to change cards for whatever reason, paypal cannot reconfirm you (turn you into a validated member) because, in their own words "Due to current Visa regulations, you will not be able to initiate the Membership Process with a second Visa card. The Membership Process will need to be completed with a MasterCard, American Express or Discover Card. "

Never in my life have I had a Visa merchant suggest I use another brand of card, and blame the problem on Visa.

As a result, I cannot use my paypal account because no seller will accept to do transactions with unverified members.

Paypal customer service sent me an email with the exact quote above in it, and offered no other method to resolve the issue.

Apparently they don't want to retain clients.

E-commerce, not ready for prime time.

Alex

01-30-2003	#1
RawAlex Members $100 for every ImLive sign-up Join Date: Oct 2002 Posts: 4,036	I was recently looking to purchase a piece of equipment, not the cheapest thing, all considered, but commonly enough sold on Ebay (usually 5-10 active auctions on this item... retails for a couple of thousand) It seems that Ebay has a real problem with people hacking into other user's accounts and using those accounts to run auctions. "Star" members, people with very good rankings, are getting their accounts taken over and bogus auctions are being put up for the item I was looking for. Often, the seller would have a "buy it now" price that was a little under the market value, making it a good deal. So far, two out of three sellers I have contacted have turned out to be frauds. Ebay has cancelled their auctions, and the accounts disactivated. The common thread is "free" mail accounts such as hotmail, yahoo, and such. It looks like these accounts are expiring, and people are taking them over, using them to get the password from Ebay, and then putting up bogus auctions. From what I can tell, the easiest way to spot them is people that will only accept wire transfers or similar types of transactions. They will not accept escrow accounts, nor will they accept paypal (which is useless for me, as I will explain in a second). If you are doing the Ebay thing, watch yourself closely, it is really getting quite scammy out there. Now, for paypal... If you are using a visa card on your paypal account, and have to change cards for whatever reason, paypal cannot reconfirm you (turn you into a validated member) because, in their own words "Due to current Visa regulations, you will not be able to initiate the Membership Process with a second Visa card. The Membership Process will need to be completed with a MasterCard, American Express or Discover Card. " Never in my life have I had a Visa merchant suggest I use another brand of card, and blame the problem on Visa. As a result, I cannot use my paypal account because no seller will accept to do transactions with unverified members. Paypal customer service sent me an email with the exact quote above in it, and offered no other method to resolve the issue. Apparently they don't want to retain clients. E-commerce, not ready for prime time. Alex __________________ Let's go to the edge of disaster Push the pedal and go a little faster Let's slam into a wall at ramming speed Let's go to the edge of a mountain Jump off and lets start countin' Hit the ground and tell me if it bleeds