What e-Bay hackers can do...

[Haltickling]

When you're hunting for things on e-Bay, do you ever feel safe? An interesting case happened here in Germany recently:

Somebody hacked into a gardener's e-bay account and bought him several nice items: a new Mercedes, an ultra-light aircraft, and a piece of real estate in Leipzig (former East Germany). Now, isn't that nice, you may ask. The problem: e-Bay now charges him 1.4 million € (about the same in $)! As the buyer had used the gardener's e-Bay password, the poor guy is now having a hard time to prove that the purchase wasn't made by himself but an unknown person. If he can't convince the court, he may have to pay for a long, long time...

There are only a few safeguards to protect you from hackers doing damage to you:

-change your passwords frequently!
-never store your password on your computer!
-do a frequent virus and trojan scan!

Or: Never buy anything over the internet... 🙁

 

[Neutron]

I Wonder...

Why didn't his credit card limit stop this? I know if I buy stuff I have a limit set. If I go over my account simply won't allow the transaction. I then have to call the bank and authorize it.


Tron

 

[TicklingDuo]

One thing that may bear exploration is whether or not there's any way to trace back the IP information from the transaction. If that shows up in e-bay's records, it may be a way to prove that it wan't him...AND find the guilty party.

I agree with Tron's observation, though. I haven't bought anything on e-bay. But, using PayPal would be my only way of doing so if I ever did. Then, I can put the necessary amount in my PayPal account and use it at the time. I don't keep ANYTHING in my account unless I find something. (The same goes for my checking account.) When I find something I'd like, I deposit the money and get it.

That also keeps me from spending money I can't afford to spend. If I don't have the money, I can't deposit any in order to spend it. 😉

Ann

 

[Limeoutsider]

My card does the same thing as Tron's, except I can't call and authorize, I havr to put more money in my account.

 

[luv2bt&tickled]

Mine does the same as Tron's just have to call them up to authorize it. You do have to becareful, thanks Hal. 🙂

 

[Haltickling]

German e-Bay purchases don't require credit cards, as much fewer people here use them. I'd estimate that not more than 50% of Germans ever had a credit card, they're just not very popular here. As Paypal Germany does require a credit card for access, the same applies to them.

Payments here are done by invoice and money transfer by bank account. Therefore e-Bay doesn't set a limit to the value of any item in an auction. Nevertheless, it's a legally binding contract when you place a bid. Non-payment can be prosecuted as fraud.

The problem is that the burden of evidence stays with the e-Bay account holder. That's the problem with all purchases on the internet, I suppose.

 

[Neutron]

Lime..

Oh whether or not the I have sufficient money in the account is immaterial. If I put a 50 dollar limit on purchases and I have 150 in my account it won't go past 50 unless I call to allow the other hundred to be accessed. This resets every so many hours.

Haltickling, how strange. I wonder what the genesis of that law is.

Tron