What should you do in case your eBay account gets compromised

The online world can be an exciting place to start a new business – it only takes a couple of minutes to open an eBay seller account and to start selling your items to millions of shoppers.  There are online sellers who rack up thousands of pounds worth of sales each day.  As profitable this activity might sound, it doesn’t come without its own risks.

There will always be individuals wanting to get something for nothing – who will try to steal your personal and financial information or whatever else they can get their hands on.

What is the worst thing that could happen if your eBay account gets attacked?

The worst thing that can happen on eBay is called an “Account Takeover” – which is exactly what it sounds like – it’s when someone else takes control of your eBay account. Once someone takes over your eBay account he/she will be able to get access to your personal information, financial information and commit fraudulent actions in your name. These actions can vary, from defrauding buyers to spamming other eBay users, etc.

Account takeovers can cause long-term damage to your name and reputation, they can even result in eBay suspending your account because of the fraudulent activity. This can be a frightening and stressful experience for the rightful possessor of the account, which may result in a considerable loss in profits if not spotted in time.

How can someone compromise my eBay account?

The most common causes that result in your eBay account getting attacked are:

1. “Spoof” emails – these emails are designed to look exactly like legitimate emails from eBay or PayPal – which often persuades the unsuspecting recipients to click the link in the email. Usually, these links redirect users to fake sign-in pages – which look exactly like the legitimate website – where the users then enter their login credentials.
2. Weak passwords – there is always a chance a password can be guessed, and the weaker the password, the easier it is to guess. The most important thing is not to use the same password for all of your accounts. If the email, eBay and PayPal passwords are the same, the culprit can easily intercept notification emails and delete them before the user even sees them.
3. Malware on your device – malware is a software specifically designed to disrupt, damage or get authorized access to a computer system. Email attachments or online media can contain malware which then records your activity and can record your accounts and passwords and then them to its creators.
4. Not having 2-factor authentication enabled on your eBay account – 2FA as it’s called, adds extra security to your account. When someone tries to login to your eBay account, it will request a special PIN which is sent as a text message to your personal phone. Without the special PIN number attackers won’t be able to log in to your eBay account.

We’ve talked about what you can do to prevent your eBay account from getting compromised, now let’s see which steps you should take if you haven’t taken these precautionary measures and your eBay account got exposed.

If you can still access your account you will have to follow these steps:

• Change your password as soon as possible – as changing your password will prevent the attackers from logging back into your eBay account – it is required to change your PayPal and email address passwords as well.
• Also be sure to change your secret question(s) – this will prevent the attackers from logging into your account with using the “I forgot my password” screen.
• Verify your contact information and payment details – Check the contact information, shipping addresses, and payment information. Do not leave the PayPal address unchanged, as it might have been changed to an email address that looks very similar. Let’s have a look at these 2 addresses for example:

info@southerntailors.co.uk

info@southerntaiIors.co.uk

At a first glance, they look the same, but the first one has a lower case “L” while the second one has an upper case “i”, making it very hard to spot.

• Check your pricing and stock levels, active bids and ended sales history – so if you find any fraudulent bids or listings, you can contact eBay and they will help with removing them.

If you can’t sign in to your account

In the event of not being able to sign in to your eBay account, it is advised to immediately contact eBay support and get them to freeze your account. It is also advised to contact your credit card company and bank to be sure that there weren’t any transactions made without you knowing.

What can Ad-Lister do to help you in case your account gets compromised?

Ad-Lister stores product data on our servers – this means that you will always have the products ready to be listed even if the attackers delete the listings off eBay.

You can use Ad-Lister to restore descriptions, titles, images and item specifics like they were before you got attacked. Our tool offers you the possibility to save a back-up file of your inventory on your personal computer which you can also use to restore everything to the state they were before.