In our eBay classes we talk about how to protect ourselves from online fraud. One of the methods we discuss is, never respond to an email from eBay or PayPal that asks you to click on a link and access your account. It is important to note that no company or financial institution will ever email their customers asking for their account information.

If you do receive one, then it is most likely to be from a someone pretending to be eBay. The purpose behind such an email, called a phishing email, is to con you into providing your user id and password. This information is then used by the phisher to hijack your account and your good eBay reputation. Having access to your account, the hijacker puts up a high valued item onto eBay under your name, seeing that you have such a good reputation the unsuspecting bidder buys and pays for the item not realising that they will never ever see the goods they paid for. The phisher/account hijacker now moves onto the next account and does it all over again. Apparently this is quite a problem on eBay.

If you want to read more about online fraud and how to protect yourself eBay does provide some useful information at their Security Centre. If you believe you have been sent a phishing email, do not click on any links and do not reply, instead forward it to eBay at spoof@ebaycom.au or if it looks like a PayPal email then forward it to spoof@paypal.com.au .

Obviously more has to be done than just provide information on their website as people are still becoming victim to phishing emails. Thus eBay has announced a process they will use to try and eradicate this problem. As of now eBay will be noting the unique address of the computer you use to buy and sell on eBay. Then, as of June, anytime you make a listing the address of the computer used will be checked against their previous records. If it differs, as it would if someone had hijacked your account and was making a listing under your name, then you will be telephoned to ask if you can verify it was you making it. Of course, if your account has been hijacked you can say no and eBay will be able to take appropriate action.

But, what happens if you are somewhere else other than your usual address, at work maybe? Then eBay advises you to provide them with a mobile number as well. Thus bewarned, if you intend to create a listing away from home, make sure you have your mobile with you so that eBay can phone you to check that it really is you making the listing. I wonder what will happen, however, when I go and visit my Mum. She often goes through her cupboards before I come so that I can list her stuff under my name. In her house she doesn’t get mobile reception. Will they not allow my listing? Will they give me other options to verify my identity? Do I need to change the landline number in my account perhaps? Couldn’t hijackers do this as well? If they have access to your account couldn’t they change the phone number to a prepaid number that can’t be traced? What happens if you use public libraries? You can’t take mobile phone calls in there to verify your identity. I’m not sure how this will work out, for most of us it won’t be a problem, but you do need to be aware that you account can be frozen by eBay if they are unable to verify you making listings from a different computer than normal. This could prevent you from being able to manage your existing listings and customers.

For the official transcript click here: http://www2.ebay.com/aw/au/200804.shtml#2008-04-15174941

Happy eBaying!

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