Serious ebay / paypal problem

[china38]

Hi, i dont know what to do at the moment apart from have a panic attack which i am doing so already.

I tried to log in to my ebay account earlier today as i wanted to buy a new telephone, but i could not log in, as it was saying invalid password/username. So i tried again, anyway, long story short i checked my emails and seeminly it had been changed (not by me!)

So i got on to ebay live chat, and they told me that there had been around �15,000 worth of stuff listed and that it was done so by a 3rd party.

My paypal account was also taken (yes, i did use the same password which was around 16 letters / numbers) and as they were selling, they were also using my paypal account to do this too. I cant get access to paypal but paypal confirmed this on the phone with me and they put a block on the account.

According to ebay, around �9000 of items have already been sold and paid to my paypal account, however according to paypal, there is no money in there as there has been many purchaces using my account this morning.

Where do i stand in a legal sence as this was all done under my account adn my paypal account. Ebay told me that they will remove the auctions (which they have) and refunded the listing fees and such, and inturn no feedback can be left as they are all removed now, but in regards of paypal, if people do chargeabcks (which i fully expect them to do so) where will that leave me?

I also asked if paypal can close my account down as i never ever want to use paypal again for anything and they siad no, i have to wait untill i get htis all sorted out.

this is not good for my health as i have a fwe serious medical problems (high blood preasure, previous heart attack, etc...).

ANy advice would be great!

[Tallulah!]

This is such serious fraud you must report it to the police, and your credit card company and get a solicitor FAST. Yes even on a Saturday Morning. Good Luck.

[Tallulah!]

You could also post this question in the AB Law section if you haven't yet. Someone may be able to help.

[logic]

I have also had this problem, someone once accessed my account and listed four prestigious cars, under my e/bay name, at that time e/bay did not have a phone number for contact, so, as I had access to my account I trebled the asking price for the cars, the fraudster imediately changed them back again, this went on until e/bay noticed something wrong, and suspended my account, whereas i was able to sort this out with them,
They were very good and realised a third party had been involved, and no cost was incurred by me,
so don't worry every thing will be sorted, but it does take time,
hope this has helped you, as i know how you are feeling,
these people get your details, usually when you reply to an e/mail that you think has been sent by e/bay, (it hasn't, ) e/bay never ask for details by email, and niether do paypal, so relax, and let them sort it, which they will.

Good luck, pete.

[logic]

B T W the Police won't be interested, as it is a common untraceable problem.

[Ethel]

It's frightening but try not to panic.

eBay have acknowledged your account has been hacked and not only removed the listings but refunded the fees.

PayPal has blocked your account and all monies paid in to it on those listings will be refunded to the buyers. It will not be your money at all. Don't forget chargebacks only happen when people have paid and I assume you have not taken money from the account from these hijack listings.

What you absolutely must do is assume that the hacker has had access to your PayPal account. Phone the bank account and credit card companies you have linked to your PayPal account IMMEDIATELY.

You do not need to see a solicitor at the moment.

[Rollo]

And PLEASE don't give away your ebay/paypal log in details to scammers by answering (any more?) phishing emails that appear to come from ebay or paypal.

That's how these people usually manage to hack accounts.

[china38]

I have already phoned up my credit card companys to cancle the cards and i have explained to them exactly what happened, and they have blocked those and will issue new ones in the next few days. They did confirm that nothing is pending on the cards at the moment, so i guess that is good.

I did not even get access to my paypal account so could not see what was inside it - so i have not touched it.

SOmebody siad it is non traceable, but what about the IP addresses?

I can't afford any solicitors.

As for emails, i got a few over the past few weeks which i deleted and did not respond too, which i do not know how they got my password. I did use an internet cafe a couple of weeks ago when i was in Aberdeen and did use ebay / paypal but i dont think that woul dhave anything to do with this.

Ethel, you say the money will be refunded to the buyer but wont that leave my account in the minus? ebay have admitted it has been accessed by a third party but only ebay. paypal put a lock on the account and told me that they will get the fraud team on to it but that is all they said.

[china38]

SIRandyraven - my password (i will not post what it was) but an example of what it was, was1920hAppy82gUy.

I had 3/4 digits then word then digits then word with certain letters in the words being in capitals.

I have the password written in my head, and in my personal diary (which is locked away with one key)

[Rollo]

I did use an internet cafe a couple of weeks ago when i was in Aberdeen and did use ebay / paypal but i dont think that woul dhave anything to do with this.


***************************

Using a "Public" computer is not secure. For example, you don't know what software is on the computer that may be logging everything you type.

[sara3]

I once had a fake Paypal email that asked me to log on via a link in the email. I logged in, and then panicked! I then went to the Paypal website, logged in again and immediately changed my password. I mailed the site and they confirmed that it was a spoof (phishing??) email and that I'd done the right thing in changing my password straight away.

lesson learned. just don't click on links in emails, go to the site and then log on securely. I'm quite sensible but this one caught me out.

[Ethel]

china

Money will only be refunded by chargeback if it has been paid into the PayPal account. It is not your money, it is the buyers money and will not affect you whatsoever. People cannot claim back what they haven't paid, and they cannot claim back your money.
It will not leave your account in the minus at all, so stop worrying about that.

I would say it definitely was the internet cafe - the computer stored your details, so when someone tried to log in, it would do it automatically. Or you failed to log out properly.


Now, you have done everything you can do. Nothing bad is going to happen to you because of this, you will not lose money at all.

The only inconvenience is that caused by the need to cancel your cards, and that will be righted in the next few days.

You will always find somebody to advise you here:
http://forums.ebay.co.uk/forum.jspa?forumID=7

So, you can and shoud stop worrying about it now, and enjoy the rest of your weekend.

[china38]

Ethel - according to ebay they say that items were sold and bought on my account this morning (when i was sleeping) and the amount of items sold were around �9k and around the same bought. So if they used my paypal account to sell, and buy - then surely the people who sent items to the hackers would do chargeback to get money back on that, and the people who bought things from the scammers would also do a chargeback to get their money back too meaning double chargebacks?

As for the internet cafe - i did log out of the computer. I could not see a tower hard drive, so i assume that they are hidden away or something? I did not think about spyware or such on the pc as i'd assume that with them being a business, dealing with computers and internet each day that they would make sure they were clean all the time?

[china38]

SIRandyraven - you state that they will "write it off" but this is alot of money, its �9,000! It would take me around 3 years to save that much up personally.

I know i am worrying about this but its not good when you expect the worst

[Ethel]

China

You are not responsible or liable for that money - and you never will be.

It takes days to clear from a paypal account to a personal account.

�9k has gone in, �9k will be repaid to those buyers. There is no missing money, the goods will never be sent out as they don't exist and the scammer can't get it.

I don't know how to make it any plainer. There is no money to write off. The people who paid it in good faith will get it back.
They are only getting back what they have paid in. Nobody is out of pocket.

Do you see?

[Jillius]

If someone was using your Paypal account, I wonder why you never got any emails about the transactions. I have just changed my password to a more secure one after reading your story. I hope you get it sorted out.