SPIN CYCLE : On eBay, let the seller also beware
Posted on Sunday, July 2, 2006
Hey, wanna buy a “SCAG SWZ 52 A WALK BEHIND ZEROTURN MOWER / 18 HP KOHLER / NEW” ?
Or maybe a “NEW IN BOX Cisco WS-X 6724-SFP for Catalyst 6500 Series” ?
How about a “NEW D-LINK DI-524 WIRELESS ROUTER 802. 11 BG XBOX CMPTBL” ?
Because as of just a few days ago, I was selling these very items. Even though I didn’t realize I was selling these very items. Even though, heck, I still don’t even know what these very items are !
Someone had busted in to my eBay account — perhaps while using the “New IBM Thinkpad T 60 p Laptop Duo 2. 16 Gz 200795 U T 60” or the “NEW !! DELL Inspiron E 1505 6400 LAPTOP NOTEBOOK 100 GB” that it looked like I was selling.
How this happened, I’m not sure. I do use eBay. I buy things (makeup, jewelry, sometimes a car ) and I sell things (old books, unwanted impulse buys, sometimes a car ). But I know never to click on the links provided in totally convincing-looking eBay e-mails; I always go directly to eBay. com. And I know better than to heed the directions in — or even open — the suspicious-looking correspondence that arrives from time to time.
So it didn’t shake me in the least when someone sent an e-mail inquiring about the “INTENSE M 3 DOWNHILL FRAMESET - BRAND NEW - GLOSS BLACK” I was selling. Figuring it was just another scammer attempting to prey on a naive auction-site user, I directed the message to eBay’s security folks.
Later that same evening, I happened to log on to my eBay homepage and realized I was “selling” not just the item asked about, but no fewer than 50 other high-dollar electronics, home appliances and pieces of fitness equipment. And all of the auctions were set to end in 24 hours ! And people would be expecting me to send them this stuff ! And I wouldn’t be able to send out this stuff ! And my eBay rating would surely suffer ! And I’d probably get sued ! Gulp !
While panicking and hunting for eBay’s emergency phone number (memo to self and anyone else who finds himself in this predicament: Don’t bother. They don’t have one, at least not one you’ll ever find ), I wondered why someone would want to “sell” all this stuff under someone else’s account ?
I mean, if I was a savvy criminal and could have my way with someone else’s account, wouldn’t I want to buy things ? The situation reminded me of the chick I wrote about in this column years ago — the one who somehow managed to steal my credit card information and then bought, not Tiffany or Coco, but Jane, as in the magazine, as in a subscription sent directly to her then-traceable dwelling, as in, duh.
After several minutes of stressful searching, I found where I could report the security breach via e-mail. I submitted the information, still distressed that eBay would not get back in touch with me before the fake auctions ended.
I needn’t have worried. In as long as it took me to change my e-mail passwords for eBay and PayPal (eBay’s money manager; thank goodness, no one broke into that account ), eBay sent an e-mail saying they would cancel the phony listings and freeze my account until I established contact and verified information with a representative via their live Internet chat feature. It did take almost 20 minutes for an eBay staff member to connect with me, but in the end the account was reinstated, nothing was lost and all was right again in my online auction world.
Well, almost right.
I realize now how insecure these supposedly secure sites can be. This happened once, it will surely happen to me or other people again.
I’d be willing to bet my “PIONEER PDP-5030 HD 50 " PLASMA HDTV TELEVISION * NEW *” on it. E-mail at your own risk:
jchristman@arkansasonline. com
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