One thing to remember: scammers use hijacked accounts to get money to fund illegal activities (such as the drug trade) and military wars; not just money for their own lifestyles.
NEVER, NEVER, NEVER PAY WITH WESTERN UNION.
1. There is no ebay warehouse
2. Ebay does not indorse certain sellers
3. Ebay does not have $20,000 on hold so that if you do not get your item, you get your money back
4. Square Trade does not have $20,000 on hold so that if you do not get your item, you get your money back
5. Square Trade is an on-line mediation company, not an escrow company
6. Ebay endorses only ONE escrow company. All others recommended by a seller are in place to scam you
7. Shipping is not free. Why are they shipping a car, motorcycle, tractor, trailer, etc for FREE????
8. You are not in contact with the eBay user who's ID that auction is listed under. You are in contact with a scammer who has taken over that ID.
9. NEVER, NEVER, NEVER PAY WITH WESTERN UNION.
If you have opened an email from Paypal or eBay that wanted you to update your information and you clicked on the link to go to eBay or Paypal, you have become a victim of “phishing.” If you supplied any information or attempted to log in, you may have had a trojan downloaded on your computer that is logging your keystrokes and stealing your passwords and other sensitive information.
You should never, ever click on the links in any email. The pages they take you to can have trojans coded into them that will log your keystrokes or even viruses that could infect and possibly ruin your computer. If you clicked on the link provided, you should run your anti-virus program now and also your spyware program (if you have one...like Ad-Aware and spybot).
Here are the steps you need to follow:
1. change your passwords at eBay and Paypal and anywhere else you use that password. Do this on another computer if at all possible.
2. Go here: Account Theft - What to do: http://pages.ebay.com/help/tp/isgw-account-theft-reporting.html
There is a Live Help button there if you need assistance.
**The Live Help button on this page opens a pop-up window and if you run a pop-up stopper program or an ad blocker, you may need to disable it or the pop-up window may not work for you.
3. Run your up-to-date virus software. If you have not had a virus update in the last 6 hours, your virus software is out of date. If you need an excellent virus software that is free, go to www.google.com and type AVG free. Download AVG antivirus software free version and do the updates. Run until your computer is clean.
4. Run a good spyware program such as the one you can get for Windows XP at www.microsoft.com. If you have an earlier version of Windows, go to www.pcworld.com and click downloads. Look for Spybot, download, update, and run until your system is clean. Do the same for Ad-Aware which is also available at www.pcworld.com.
A free download that I like to do a deep scan on my machine for Trojan horse programs that might steal keystrokes/passwords is located here: http://www.emsisoft.com/en/
The free download is the 2nd line in the upper left corner. Once it's downloaded your machine doesn't need to be connected to the internet, important if you are on dialup. It takes a while to run so I usually just set it to run and go to bed.
What is a keystroke logger? http://searchsecurity.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid14_gci962518,00.html
5. Next, read up on phishing: http://www.fdic.gov/consumers/consumer/alerts/phishing.html
6. Go to this link and print out the information regarding account takeovers and how to fix your credit and what to look for regarding identity theft: http://www.fdic.gov/news/news/press/2004/pr9304a.pdf
7. Visit eBay's Security Center: http://pages.ebay.com/securitycenter/
8. You can also send it to spam@uce.gov and reportphishing@antiphishing.org
9. Always check your MY EBAY for emails from eBay. If the email is not there, it is not from eBay.
10. CHANGE YOUR PASSWORDS AGAIN.
Question: How did my account get hacked?
Answers:
1). You clicked on a link in an email that looked like it was from eBay or Paypal.
Remember: any email from eBay will also be in you MY EBAY messages area. Answer all emails thru there, never thru the actual email.
2). You left your account up on a public-accessed computer.
Remember: ALWAYS log out of eBay even if you are on your home computer.
3). Your password is easy to guess.
Change your password frequently. Use a combination of letters and numbers.
4). You have a keystroke logger on your computer.
What to do: get your computer IMMEDIATELY to a reputable repair service (such as Geek Squad) so they can remove the keystroke logger. Any and all information you log using your computer is transmitted to scammers until your computer is fixed. This includes bank accounts, credit cards and passwords.
5). You clicked on a gallery picture of a naked woman/girl (in a category unrelated to naked women) and entered your sign in information so you could look at the auction.
6). Check out this eBay users ME PAGE. Lots of useful information:
http://members.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewUserPage&userid=4acct-safety
One thing to remember: scammers use hijacked accounts to get money to fund illegal activities (such as the drug trade) and military wars; not just money for their own lifestyles.
