Mike wrote: How does this happen?
I can speak with a bit of authority on this subject (as a retired cryptanalyst spook).....
Identity theft IS rampant. They ARE (in some cases) working actively to crack peoples ebay accounts at random.
They do this by attacking your keyword. They are given your account name (say hersefan for instance). Thus all they need is your password.
If your password consists of only lower case letters - then you are an EASY target. If you have tacked a single digit on the end it is more difficult but still easily doable.
How do you protect yourself? It is imperative to:
1. Choose an Ebay password that you are not using anywhere else. (for instance if your bank gets hacked you don't also want your Ebay password to be revealed as well.
2. Choose a password that is "strong"; ie, difficult to guess or exhaust over. It should be at least 8 characters long, contain numbers and/or special characters, etc. Using some capitalized characters and some lower case is also most useful!
3. Some advise changing passwords every 3 months or so. I am not that paranoid if the password is chosen carefully.
regards
Ken Sanford
Kensington, MD
> For curiosity, how is this happening? It appears in this case the ebay
> user was hijacked, since in this instance the transaction was to occur by
> email not through the ebay system.
>
> This seems rampant - is there a way to protect oneself? Are folks just at
> random trying to crack peoples ebay accounts?
>
> This is getting creepy..
>
> Mike Kone in Boulder CO
>
> -------------- Original message --------------
>
>> Well, it's back. Check out:
>>
>> http://ebay.com/
>> categoryZ98084QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
>>
>> or item # 7201078219.
>>
>> Your listing ended about 4 Ack Emma EST this morning, and by cocktail
>> hour tonight, it's relisted after traveling from Vancouver to Lost Wages
>> in a little over 12 hours. Some riding! And in one gear, too.
>>
>> What is it about Cinellis?
>>
>> Phil Sieg
>> Knoxville, Tennessee
>>
>>
>>
>> David Bilenkey wrote:
>>
>> >No relation to seller, I just came across it, and considering the really
>> >nice pics and all I though some would like to get a look at it:
>> >
>> >http://cgi.ebay.ca/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem
>> >
>> >&item=7199040548
>> >
>> >extra pics:
>> >
>> >http://photobucket.com/albums/a183/Bughunter3/Cinelli2/
>> >
>> >It looks about my size, but way out of my price range.... :-/
>> >
>> >David
>> >--
>> >David 'happy with my Masi' Bilenkey
>> >Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
>> >dbilenkey@sympatico.ca