Ebay scam?Sold an item I didn't list.

[andy118run]

Just looking for some advice from the clever people/sleuths who frequent this forum.

I've been on ebay since 2005, never had a problem worthy of mention.

However, just popped on there to browse some motors for sale and find I'm awaiting payment for an item I never listed.

The link is here, assuming it works:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/4-in-1-Carpet-Washer-Va...

Apparently I have 55 of these available, luckily only one has sold. Obviously, I ended the item, clicked the cancel sale link on the one I did sell and mailed the buyer, telling them there is no vacuum.

I've also changed my ebay password.

What's going on though? A scam? I don't get it as the person would be paying me money.

A very quick google brings up some posts on the ebay community site about this but no real wisdom.

I have now changed my paypal password and primary email password, as it seems my email was probably hacked from what people are posting on there.

Anything I'm missing or need to do? Anyone else had this issue? I will probably contact ebay though the listing was free and I doubt the fees for selling one item are great so I'm not too fussed.

[Alucidnation]

Probably the Russians again.

They get to us everywhere.

[ElectricPics]

A similar thing happened to me a while ago. I've got two-factor authentication on my eBay, PayPal and Google accounts now. Any fresh login attempts and I get a one-time code sent by SMS.

[MatthewH5]

This is a common scam on eBay, it's been going on for a while.

I can't see your original link as it has been removed, but I imagine the item was listed very cheap relative to market value (eg £25 for a £100 item, 50 available).

They hijack existing eBay accounts to do this for two reasons:
- An established account looks more credible to buyers than a new 0-feedback account
- eBay often hold any funds received by new accounts for 21 days before they're released to your PayPal account

Each eBay item has an associated PayPal account which is specified when listing an item. In this case, they will have set the PayPal account of the above item to their own email address. If you have any other items currently listed I would double-check these to ensure these haven't been modified. You can check this on the "Revise Listing" page - the PayPal address field should be at the bottom of the page.

I assume they list high quantities of items at low prices as it's more likely that some people will forget to claim their money back from PayPal when the item never arrives.

[andy118run]

MatthewH5 said:

This is a common scam on eBay, it's been going on for a while.



I assume they list high quantities of items at low prices as it's more likely that some people will forget to claim their money back from PayPal when the item never arrives.

Thanks for that. Very useful info which kind of makes sense to me now.
You are right - the item was a vacuum cleaner for £8.xx and the quantity was 56.

It's proving a pain in the back side - even though I changed my password before notifying ebay, my account is now suspended by them. I cant answer their security question and cant get through to customer services.

Also just received an email from national lottery advising me to change my password due to suspicious activity on my account.

[geeks]

Might be worth sticking your email address into here https://haveibeenpwned.com/ to trace back where the breach might have occurred of your username and password info. People tend to use the same username and password across multiple sites so once the data has been leaked its a proverbial free for all!

[andy118run]

geeks said:

Might be worth sticking your email address into here https://haveibeenpwned.com/ to trace back where the breach might have occurred of your username and password info. People tend to use the same username and password across multiple sites so once the data has been leaked its a proverbial free for all!

Interesting. I tried it and nothing came up. I'm still strongly suspecting my email account was hacked.

I put my wife's email in there and it came up with 3 breaches...

[geeks]

andy118run said:

geeks said:

Might be worth sticking your email address into here https://haveibeenpwned.com/ to trace back where the breach might have occurred of your username and password info. People tend to use the same username and password across multiple sites so once the data has been leaked its a proverbial free for all!

Interesting. I tried it and nothing came up. I'm still strongly suspecting my email account was hacked.

I put my wife's email in there and it came up with 3 breaches...

Well it was worth a shot, I would still work through the logging in and changing passwords to everything, also try to avoid storing them in a browser and use a password manager of some description, I use LastPass others are available depending on preference, others prefer KeyPass etc

[CoolHands]

The national lottery thing is coincidence

[bloomen]

ElectricPics said:

A similar thing happened to me a while ago. I've got two-factor authentication on my eBay, PayPal and Google accounts now. Any fresh login attempts and I get a one-time code sent by SMS.

There doesn't appear to be an authenticator code based option on Ebay UK which is bizarre. I spend lots of time abroad and out of signal so SMS is useless, let alone much less secure.

[Alex Z]

Not if he used the same password on a bunch of sites.

[CoolHands]

Everyone with national lottery got an email today as the sire was hacked.