4-5 years ago my ebay account was hijacked. This was prior to my installation of a firewall on my computer. Best guess was that a program was scanning my keystrokes and outed my password to the perps.
Nick Zatezalo Atlanta,Ga
-----Original Message-----
>From: Gary Chottiner <gsc2@po.cwru.edu>
>Sent: Jun 29, 2006 7:54 PM
>To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org
>Subject: [CR]Ebay, Esnipe and hijacked accounts
>
>I hesitated in making a post to the list about my recent eBay fraud
>experience but now that the topic has been raised, I should probably chime
>in too. Shortly after I returned home from my first visit to Le Cirque
>(which was even better than I had imagined) my eBay account was hijacked and
>used to post about a hundred of those 24 hour auctions for bicycles, stereo
>equipment et al. I caught on shortly and, via eBay's chat feature, had eBay
>shut them down. The perpetrator had transferred $1000 into my account to pay
>for listings, then retrieved the money, transferred the fees to my account,
>added credit cards, changed the email address, etc. Even with a new, secure
>and impossible to guess password, I found that the fiend was able to take
>actions that generated new and ominous warnings from eBay about the use of
>credit cards, etc. I had to spend another 3 hours chatting with various
>service reps, none of whom could do anything except send me on a wild goose
>chase to another chat. I ended up canceling my account with eBay,
>pedal-professor, along with its feedback record of 768 transactions with
>only one, undeserved negative. I also canceled my PayPal account and the
>credit card associated with my purchases. This seemed like the only prudent
>thing to do, since no one at eBay could tell me much about what happened and
>I didn't want to risk more serious problems.
>
>I don't think the problem was eSnipe, which I've used for a few years, but I
>would be interested to see if there is any common denominator between those
>of us who have been victimized. It's almost certainly not a virus or worm
>or Spyware in my case, since my computers checked out clean before and after
>the incident. It's also unlikely that I fell victim to phishing, since I
>ignore all such messages, dozens every day, and only look at eBay emails
>viewable via their own web site. There is however one careless thing I did
>on the trip to Le Cirque; I brought along a laptop computer and used it to
>check some eBay auctions. The wireless networks at The Battleground Inn and
>another place I stayed were not secure and someone could have stolen my eBay
>password by monitoring the wireless signal. I knew that I was taking a risk
>but I did find out that I won, using eSnipe, a set of four NOS Campy NR/SR
>brake pads for about $14! I didn't win the Richard Sachs bike that was
>being auctioned at the time. I console myself by thinking of all the money I
>saved.
>
>In any case, I've sworn off eBay for the foreseeable future, which means I
>won't be doing any more collecting except for things that are posted for
>sale directly on this list. Fortunately I have enough frames and parts to
>keep me busy for quite some time. This does mean that I probably won't be
>picking up a fixed gear any time soon (but I want to thank John T.
>Pergolizzi for the short fixed gear ride in The Battleground Inn parking
>lot). In fact, without eBay in my life, I should now have a lot more time
>for actual riding!
>
>I had planned to start selling off a lot of components that are excess to my
>needs, offering them first to the list before sending them to eBay. Now I
>might hold off and offer them to the list next spring for delivery at the
>next Cirque - we've got our reservation! (Thanks, Dale and the others who
>put these events together.)
>
>By the way, if you want to see my current collection of bikes, I've got some
>poor pictures posted at http://users.adelphia.net/
>service doesn't allow me the space to post more high resolution photos.
>
>Regards,
>Gary Chottiner, Northeast Ohio