# So my mother's ebay, half.com and paypal accounts have been hacked. What can we do? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 26, 2002, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-my-mothers-ebay-half-com-and-paypal-accounts-have-been-hacked-what-can-we-do/116116 "2002-06-26T22:34:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![iampunha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/74df32/32.png) [@iampunha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iampunha)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2002, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-my-mothers-ebay-half-com-and-paypal-accounts-have-been-hacked-what-can-we-do/116116/1 "2002-06-26T22:34:59Z")
Evidently someone got her passwords and changed the email addresses info goes to. Someone tried to buy a rather expensive (2.5K) camera, but failed. The only thing that I can think of is that someone ran a script on-site and captured a bunch of passwords and email addresses. But we have 0 clue of what to do. Suggestions? ---
**Author:** ![handy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5a626/32.png) [@handy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handy)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2002, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-my-mothers-ebay-half-com-and-paypal-accounts-have-been-hacked-what-can-we-do/116116/2 "2002-06-27T00:00:06Z")
Youll have to talk to all of those sites about this. They should have contact info on them. Paypal might be tricky to find but don’t sweat it, they have a contact email. ---
**Author:** ![iampunha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/74df32/32.png) [@iampunha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iampunha)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2002, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-my-mothers-ebay-half-com-and-paypal-accounts-have-been-hacked-what-can-we-do/116116/3 "2002-06-27T01:52:36Z")
She already got in touch with paypal and her account is currently blocked (at her request). The tough thing is that ebay (at least in my experience) reacts to problems like this: Me: there’s a problem. Here it is: [info]. Ebay: what problem? Meanwhile, here’s a bunch of random shit. Me: please read the original email. I do not have a problem with my url proxy settings. I have a problem with [info]. Ebay: there’s no problem! See, look here, where we changed the information! See? HEY! LOOK OVER THERE! ::RUNS AWAY:: She’s emailed all the relevant folks she could find. She’s got the contact information for the person she thinks did this (when you ask ebay to change your contact email address, they tell you what it’s been changed to. She did a directory listing or something to find out who it is. So she’s got the person, she’s just a mite afraid to do anything about it because this person could quite literally do whatever the hell he wants with her accounts). Paypal was actually the easiest of them all:) ---
**Author:** ![istara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/e79b87/32.png) [@istara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/istara)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2002, 6:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-my-mothers-ebay-half-com-and-paypal-accounts-have-been-hacked-what-can-we-do/116116/4 "2002-06-27T06:30:09Z")
I would suggest calling the police. Just because this happened online, doesn’t make it any less fraud, theft, or illegal. ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2002, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-my-mothers-ebay-half-com-and-paypal-accounts-have-been-hacked-what-can-we-do/116116/5 "2002-06-29T03:49:35Z")
> [@](#): > > She’s got the contact information for the person she thinks did this So, it’s an inside job? How else does she have info about who did this? If she knows the culprit, all she has to do is press charges. I don’t know the procedure, but something seems to be unusual here.