10:40am Edited to add:
eBay have told us ‘The safety and security of eBay is of paramount importance. We will investigate these suspected account takeovers’.
16:30pm Edited to add:
eBay have come back with more information: ‘We can confirm these isolated cases relate to individual accounts being compromised at the user end, not an eBay site security issue, and we are working with the small number of affected users to rectify the situation which we estimate relates to around 30 eBay sellers. At no point was eBay.co.uk compromised and safety and security remain our priority’.
8.30am Original Post:
It would appear that a hacker has found a vulnerability on eBay which has enabled them to replace business seller information on many hundreds of listings.
The information has been replaced with the email address [email protected] asking buyers to contact direct with the item number for a 20% discount. The phone number remains that of the legitimate seller.
Checking eBay listings found on a Google search for the email address suggests that the hack is limited to a relatively small number of seller IDs, so this may not be an eBay hack but individual account hacks.
We’ve asked eBay for comment but naturally they’re all just on their way into the office so we’ll update later once we have more news.
In the mean time we’d strongly recommend that if you are a buyer that you do not buy from that email address. Personally I wouldn’t buy from an affected listing just in case other account details have been changed, but I certainly would never send money to an off eBay address for a discount. Make sure you pay with PayPal for protection!
If you’re a seller and spot that your own business seller information has been tampered with then contact eBay support straight away – it may be your account has been hacked and not eBay. From experience the eBay Trust and Safety support guys are mega hot on tracking down when and where an account has been accessed from and they’ll restore full control of your eBay account to you.
11 Responses
Hmmmmmmm, very curious, as the rogue text is on a line that a user cannot edit/add data too. Its on the same page line where a sellers VAT info would be displayed.
Thats very strange. Every listing he has seems to be on a different ebay site also. Starting at Nicaragua to the Philippines. Seems like his account has been hacked as it has previously done a lot of business by the looks of it.
I have come across RobPhone64 before.
I report dodgy listings in my own speciality (wide format printers) and this person has been creating listings with graphics borrowed from legitimate listings and just a JPEG of some text in the description offering the item for a ludicrous price.
I had not looked at the business details but I will in future.
I can attest to how quickly these listings disappear.
My original post here!!
https://community.ebay.co.uk/t5/Seller-Central/BUYERS-BEWARE-I-think-I-ve-found-a-mega-scam/td-p/2355496
Yes, a seller CAN edit that information. It is in their site preferences. You can only see the preference for Business Seller Info when logged into sites that require that be displayed. UK and IT are ones for sure. Definitely not US. Hackers know this. Hackers know more about your account than you do.
Whoever it is is at it again.
I just saw another wide format listing with the same photo as the previous robphone64 ones with the email address .
Same MO, same wording, new email.