Ebay & Paypal Woes!!
 

OMG - I was attempted to make a purchase from a fellow YTer using my Paypal account yesterday only to discover that my password would not be accepted. So I went through the ordeal of changing my password to finally get into my Paypal account which - should have had a positive balance in it - to find my balance is zero :eek: When I went into my history to see what the heck was going on, there are two transactions made on 12/8 deducting funds from my bank account - one for $197 and one for $250 for some Warhead Beta Key (wtf is this?) through Ebay.

Obviously, I dispute these charges as unauthorized transactions. Then I go to Ebay because in looking at the transfer, it is obvious these were done through Ebay. Big surprise, my password won't work there either. So, I go through the change process which results in an email, which I don't receive!! I did not see the ability to get a security person on "live chat", so I just send a message indicating I have a problem and then call my bank to dispute the money withdrawn from my account. Thank God I have fraud protection there and all I needed to do was sign a dispute form and the money was back in my account by midnight!!!

So today, I follow-up with Ebay, find the "live chat" and speak to a wonderful person there who resets everything for me. So, I have now changed my passwords in Ebay, Paypal, Bank Account and my Email account. I have a Yahoo email which now has a "betabulk" folder. I don't even look at emails that go into bulk (cause there are always LOTS of them), so I was emptying these boxes, clicked on a wrong key and actually saw some of the emails. That is where the Ebay ones went to. I also had lovely emails from the two sellers I opened disputes with in Paypal. Both of them are PO'd that I didn't contact them before I opened a dispute and telling me they will not drop this. So, I sent them both responses telling them my account had been compromised and I would not drop the disputes and they should report to both Ebay and Paypal the name and address of the person to whom these items were sent.

UGH - technology can certainly make our lives miserable!!!!!!

The lesson here, make sure each of your passwords is very distinctly different from the others and regularly check Ebay and Paypal for fraudulent activity!!!

OMG!!! That is sooo horrible and I am sorry you have to go through this, but I am glad you posted about it! I am heading over to PayPal and eBay now!!!! That is crazy!!!

WOW :eek: !!! Thanks for posting that !! There are so many scammers & Identity thieves -Spelling- out there it makes no sence!! Good luck to you !!

I change my passwords once a month!

I received an email not too long ago asking "Where the F*** is my watch". I was going to reply and inform them that I had never sold anything on ebay, but when I clicked for the reply, it asked for my user name. It never asks for my user name. So I didn't respond to the email I forwarded it to the ebay fraud department.

It came up with my email, but not my user name. There is a lot of fraud going on out there with ebay, but most of the time it's because people respond to emails like that and unknowingly give out their information. Most people are going to jump to defend themselves and provide all sorts of information to prove their innocence.

What is really strange about all this is that you regularly see warnings from Ebay and Paypal about email scammers that look like they are legitimately from Ebay and Paypal asking you click on a link and update your account information. Both sites state they would NEVER ask for this information via email or over the phone and most compromises occur because someone does this. Well, I haven't had any such email from anything resembling either one of these, nor do I EVER give that information over.

I'm just thankful that this was a one day, two time occurrance. It was 12 days from it happening till I tried to use my account and found the fraud. Who knows what else could have happened had I not wanted to buy that cute little treat jar???!!! I rarely have much $ in my checking account either, so by the Grace of God was there actually cash in there so I didn't have to endure insufficient funds penalties also!!!

When you change your passwords, make sure you are using both upper and lower case and numbers to make it more difficult for hackers. Never use your name, your hubby/children's names, birthdates or anniversaries either!!

I've heard so many horror stories about PayPal so I won't use them. Beware though...I've been getting several emails supposedly from eBay wanting me to sign in to reply to a message from another member...I don't think so! My name wasn't across the top like it is when eBay sends the email and they aren't in my eBay message folder so they didn't come from eBay. If you get those...don't click on the yellow 'respond' button!

Thanks!! For added security, Ebay also suggests any emails you receive in your personal email (outside of the My Ebay message folder) you send directly to them at spoof@ebay.com to make sure it is not a scam email.

Good reminder. Sorry you had to have this experience. My paypal and ebay accounts have been hijacked twice. The first was someone in the phillipines trying to buy a laptop. It overdrafted my checking account by close to $2000. I had to close my bank account, open a new one, and re-establish all of my online banking. The second time someone hijacked my ebay account and tried to sell backhoes using my ID. They changed the email address on my account so I had no clue all of these transactions were happening. Lessons learned. Use passwords with a combo of upper and lower case letters, numbers and punctuation marks. I also do not store my bank account or credit card info at PayPal. I put a card or something in there only long enough to complete a transaction, then remove it. From the first fiasco, I was part of a class action lawsuit against Paypal and got compensated fairly well for all of the hassle. Proceed with caution when using either Ebay or Paypal.

I don't have a PayPal account for this very reason. My account had been broken into on THREE different occassions. There security is TERRIBLE to say the least. My mom has one and has had one for a short while now and *crossing fingers for her* she hasn't had any issues w/ it. That's how I purchase all the wonderful things I do off of some of the people here on YT! ;)
In any case, I won't be doing PayPal again myself. It's not worth the hassle. I'll just use someone else's account and deposit the money into their account(s).

wow...what a mess!!!! why do people have paypal anyway????? do you do business out of your home?

I can't speak for everyone else, but I use Paypal cause I do buy alot of stuff off Ebay and many users will only accept Paypal because they offer guarantees on purchases. I started really using it a lot when I began my nightgown business in October. I have found most people prefer to use it and when you are sending someone goods, you know whether the $ is there rather than having to wait for snail mail for a check to come and then sending out goods.

I also have recieved many emails "from ebay" into my yahoo account saying I have a Message about an item I am selling and when I open it, it will have some crazy question and when I check the ebay item # on item it will pull up a random auction. I noticed these messages do not have my ebay id onthe top and also if you put your cursor on the respond button(without clicking of course) you will see that its web address isnt an ebay one! I hate these messages and I have recieved over 20 in the last week! I have learned to just delete them and watch a close eye on my information.

I now do not open anything that is from
"ebay" unless it is in "my messages" on ebay. Thats a pretty safe bet its an official ebay message.

I reported all of these emails to the SPoof area on ebay but never recieve any kind of email saying they are taking action....ect!

This is funny I ran across this thread. I have had an ebay account for 10 years and a paypal for 5. I change passwords every few months. Lately I have had so many phishing emails, I just alway send to spoof@ebay.com with full headers. They take care of the rest.
Last night a friend of my husbands was going to buy a 4 wheeler on ebay and my husband told him to call me first and have me check it out. He sent me all his emails with this guy and the red flag I got from these emails was they wanted the payment through Ebay Escrow using Western Union. Ebay never uses W.U., He didn't know how to forward with full headers so I did it for him and sure enough it was a scam, he would of been out $3,000.00
Ebay really needs to crack down on this somehow.

I thought your cc and bank info had to stay in there. How do you remove it?

You can't remove your payment method from Ebay, because that is what is used for you to sell items. Purchases are made from PayPal and you can remove or change your info there. If I plan on making a lot of paypal transactions, I have one credit card that I only use for that purpose so I don't expose all of my credit cards and bank account numbers.

If you go into your profile under Paypal, you can remove this information. It does however, make you an unverified member which some sellers will not work with. But, it does protect you from losing anything other than the dollars in your Paypal account (if you keep a balance) !!

Well, I have only used it a couple of times to make donations and to recieve a deposit on a puppy and to send a deposit. I NEVER even look at E-Bay so that isn't a problem. I guess I need to change that info. But then, when I use it each time, I go under profile and put the info back in?

Yes, you can add a bank or credit card account to Paypal just long enough to complete a transaction, then remove it again.

I just removed my bank and cc info,scarey. Thanks for the warning.

Thats why I no longer have a PayPal account. I had one last year and they accessed my banking info and took out quite a bit of money. Took 3 months before I got it all back. Hubby wont let me get another one.

I also use to receive emails asking me were is their payment? I don't even know what they were talking about.. but anyway I use to keep money in paypal account but not anymore just for the reason you mentioned here!
It is a lot safer to pay from your bank account and not having money in a paypal account, you do not have to leave money in there! they try to tell you that you have to but you don't.

I have gotten PayPal "invoices" for items that I supposedly bought - but I just forward those on to the "spoof" at PayPal (like the eBay one, but for PayPal) and I have never had any other problems or emails from them. I got one two days ago supposedly from eBay about changing my password - I of course, never click on anything in those emails - but I checked my eBay account, all the same, so I forwarded that to the spoof at eBay address and it was all taken care of! I just hate having to deal w/ crap like that!!!

I had to get PayPal when I started shopping on eBay, since this is the method of payment most buyers want. Then, it came in handy when I sold items too - I have also used it alot for buying from fellow YTers too!

I have to admit, it is pretty handy, but I just wish it were more secure!!! - I felt really safe using it when I first started (years ago), but not so much now!