There are plenty of multi-channel software providers out there. They all seek to integrate you into various marketplaces, streamline your fulfilment operations, cheapen the cost of your postage and altogether make your life easier. But this update from Linnworks is the first time any such service has made a pitch on their service superiority based on account security.
Linnworks has put into place a fix for a eBay security problem that it’s worth sharing: it’s specially related to when someone has access an eBay or PayPal account password. That could be a member of staff or password acquired through key logging software or an opportunistic hacking attempt because your password is used across various sites.
Here’s what they say:
As Linnworks says of the security fix: “We have recently been made aware of incidents where clients had their eBay account accessed and payment methods or business policies changed without their permission, directly through their eBay portal. We’ve introduced a new feature within Linnworks.net with the aim to help you identify any orders received that may be using different seller details to those you typically use within your business.
This feature will allow you to set ‘verified’ business Paypal addresses on your eBay integrations; in the event that an eBay order is received with a different Paypal business address than those you have provided for the account, the order will be ‘parked’ automatically, and a note added to the order so it may be identified and checked. An automated email will also be sent to your registered email address to notify you of any occurrences.”
It would be good to understand more about this security problem between PayPal and eBay and how it impacts eBay sellers every day. The Linnworks page can be found here.
Let us know, either way, if you’re a Linnworks user or not, if you’ve been affected by this security problem. It seems likely we shall be writing about it again.
6 Responses
Haven’t had this issue, thank God, BUT I had to change all our paypal email addresses on every one of our 7000 ish listings, a few days ago.
Using a file exchange upload, I changed all in the space of about 2 minutes.
So, it is incredibly easy to do if you gain access to an ebay seller account.
All you need is the item ID and the new paypal email on a CSV and Bob’s your uncle.
Sound like a very good move on Linnworks part.
Is this for real? Have you asked both eBay and PayPal why they havn’t fixed it?
LOL
Cloud Commerce Pro have been doing this for ages
Yes, we have been affected and it takes ages to sort. eBay nor Paypal doesn’t want to take any responsibility, eBay says it’s a PayPal issue, where PayPal is convinced that it’s an eBay issue. So thumbs up for Linnworks for adding this feature
Hello Dan,
Thanks for bringing attention to our recent security feature release through this article! One thing I wanted to make clear is that the recent cases we’ve dealt with were primarily where sellers had their account details compromised, IE, their login credentials used by a third party without their knowledge. There’s no ‘direct’ security issue on eBay/Paypal that we’re aware of.
Both eBay and Paypal offer some protection from this in the form of two-step authentication on logins, which are highly recommended features to enable from a security standpoint.
The idea behind our feature release is to add an additional layer of security and assist sellers in identifying any potential issues with their orders/listings they might not otherwise be aware of.
Josh Neale
Customer Experience Manager
Linn Systems
we have been affected – the help from Paypal and E-bay has been negligible.