Ebay-ers, beware..
 

I didn't know where to post this. It seems there are more than a few OT threads on this sub-forum, so here goes..

I just got a call from a credit card company, informing me of suspicious activity on my credit card account. Yup, somebody got my credit card info and started buying things. And I'm almost sure it is a result of my ebay account being hacked.

I sell on ebay very infrequently. Recently I wanted to sell a few things, and ebay insisted (surprise) that I link a credit card to my account. I hate giving my credit card info to anybody for any other reason than I'm purchasing something. But, to sell on ebay I had no choice.

The reason I think my ebay account was hacked is that I almost never use that particular credit card. That's precisely why I used it for ebay. The last time I used the card in question was a few months ago. No other entity has gotten that card's info recently, not from me anyway.

In this case, seller beware..

One of the many reasons I haven't done any buying or selling on Ebay in a long time. There are just too many holes in the process for the dishonest to exploit.

Agreed. The only other way, I believe, I could have been hacked would have been through my paypal account. That would have had to have been through a back door, i.e. ebay, as paypal and ebay are one in the same. I never gave paypal any credit card info.

15 years buying and selling there and other than the fee structure, I haven't had too many issues. Early on fraudulent users were rife and I had one who tried to pull a fast one on some camera stuff I had up but I caught on quick and reported him. For the most part I'm fine with using the service, but as I mentioned prior the fee structure can be a bit off-putting.

As far as CC fraud is concerned, you'd be very surprised how, when and where CC thieves gain access to your account(s), eBay is the least of your worries (unless you use a silly, commonly used password for your account :-/ ).

But once bitten, twice shy I suppose can't blame anyone for that.

I have a debit card I use for internet purchases. It's a card I have to load with cash and is not tied to any of my checking or savings accounts. If that card is hacked, the amount lost is very limited (I generally have less than $500 on it; more if I am making a larger purchase). Just FYI to avoid fraud...

Single-use credit card numbers (aka "virtual credit cards") are available from a number of companies. These are only valid for a single purchase and thus offer protection from this type of fraud:

http://lifehacker.com/5831160/use-vi...-the-downsides

Sites like e-bay can INSIST all they want that I link a card; if it becomes a requirement to USE the site, I'm gone, and publicly out them for it.

That's MY personal information -- *I* decide when/how/to whom it gets disclosed. The "system" can bite me, about 6-8" below the back of my belt (as I lyrically expressed to my bud/co-worker yesterday, "hairy and aromatic -- HAIR-omatic!")

I use this all the time, but lately, I wonder how useful they are. I've had my card stopped for internet/phone purchases until I receive a new card and number because several vendors were hacked--didn't matter that the number they had was deleted from the list of virtual numbers or had expired(I generally only make them active for 2 months), the CC company would cancel my ability to do internet/phone until I received and activated the new card. But, I still use a Virtual card most of the time. From my understanding many CC providers stopped offering the service as it wasn't utilized much. My provider still does.