An unknown and unauthorized person recently went to my eBay site and using my ID and password made three for-auction listings in my name. All three were for the same item, an Audi automobile. The listing said payment must be in cash which had to be paid when the item was picked up. Forgetting for the moment how this person was able to access my account, how would he or she make money? Presumably if the item sold I would have been notified by eBay and I would have put the kibbosh on the whole deal. But even if the scammer had found some way to have eBay’s notification of sale sent to the scammer instead of me, what would the scammer have done when the buyer showed up with the money to buy the car? If the scammer had such a car to sell, why not just list it legitimately?
This happened to a friend of mine and I don’t understand it either. Plus she had quite a time - changing her bank accounts, etc - because she was worried this person also had access to her Paypal account.
Auctions fraudulently posted using hijacked accounts most often try to offer an off-ebay deal - the item descriptions are peppered with instructions to contact the ‘seller’ by email to conclude the deal. Presumably in your case, the ‘seller’ would then demand payment or deposit, probably by bank transfer or money order - both of which are pretty much irreversible once they’ve left your hands.
How did your account details get compromised? Did you act on one of those spoof emails telling you that you needed to follow a link and do something to your account?
And of course, it goes without saying that there is no car for sale - it’s just an attractively-priced lure to hook the mark.
This happened to my son recently, and Ebay caught it and canceled the sale before my son found the listing. We’re mystified about it. At the same time, his hotmail account had the password changed without his knowledge. My son suspects it was this guy who e-mailed him several times demanding payment for something my son didn’t buy (or even bid on.) He and his wife changed all their passwords in the last few days, including paypal.
This somehow happened to me. Someone hacked my account and put some auctions up. I don’t use that account for selling, so ebay notified me.
I did get a couple of emails from outraged people who claimed to have paid and not gotten items. I forwarded them to ebay.
One way this may be happening to you guys is a fake eBay e-mail. It looks like a real eBay e-mail of some sort, asking you to update your credit card information, acting like a person is asking you a question about an item, or a fradulent access alert. When you click the eBay link on these e-mails, you are taken to an eBay login screen, where you dutifully enter your login information. Only it isn’t a real eBay page, it’s a fake page and somebody has your login information and can now do anything they want with your account.
The point of this is, DON’T CLICK ON LINKS IN EMAILS. Start your web browser and type the address ebay.com yourself.