Automatic ebay log in on friends phone

[cosmosgrove]

I'm asking this one for my dad, who just spent the weekend away with an elderly friend. His friend, Tom, opened up ebay and was automatically signed into my dad's ebay account. He could see my dad's highest entered bid that hadnt been used. He didn't even know it was my dad's account and the phone has never been used to log into the account before. Tom doesn't have an ebay account.

At the time my dad was not using internet data, there was no wifi access and he keeps his mobile data off although he stays logged into ebay. My dad tried shutting his own phone off which made no difference, it was only after they had gone their separate ways that Tom phoned to say the account was no longer on his phone.

So somehow Tom's phone (I think an Android) automatically logged into my dad's ebay account, he needed no password and it sounds like he was in dad's 'My ebay'.

This has me totally baffled and sounds like a security breach, my dad is now rightly concerned that others could access his details and possibly his Paypal account. For now I've told him to change his ebay password.

[letscleanupmycupboards]

I don't think it's physically possible to do what you described. Deliberately or accidentally.

Without sounding rude is it possible that he either mixed up his phone or may have logged in by accident and forgotten?

[kopenhagen5]

Hi cosmos, nice to see your ID again.

The only thing I can think of is if your father's phone is set to pair with other devices and he has ticked to stay signed in, that may give access.

However, it would only be sites such as eBay and email accounts that remain signed in.

PayPal auto signs out after a short period and requires sign in again. So no security worries there.

Perhaps go into settings and switch off auto pairing.

Devices should remain paired such as Bluetooth items. 

Edit - I was also thinking what letsclean is saying. 

[cosmosgrove]

I wouldn't have thought it was possible either, but my dad has an iphone and thought his friends is a Samsung. He would definitely notice if it wasn't his phone. I think Kopenhagen might be onto something with the device pairing, my dads phone is paired to his car and they were travelling together. 

[davewil1964]

Bingo.

Don't automatically pair your device. Or any device unless you own it and need it to be paired. To a device you own and NEED it to be paired to.

And people wonder why cybercrime is so prevalent.

[cosmosgrove]

Thanks Kopenhagen, I don't get here much these days!

My dad's phone is paired to his car, which they were travelling in together. I did get him to check his bluetooth which is on, but I thought the phones would need to be paired together for this to be a possibilty, which he said hadn't happened. 

I'll get him to check the 'auto pairing' setting.

This possibility seems like a security nightmare and I would've assumed on a new device the password would have to be entered at least once. He's fairly competent with his phone and would definitely not mix up his iphone with his friends Samsung.

[cosmosgrove]

It's set to pair with his own car, how has it paired with his friends phone without any code or notification of some sort. These two phones have never been paired.

I should add this happened when they were in the accommodation not the car, although I understand any pairing mixup has probably occurred via the car bluetooth?

So if I have this right 'Tom's' phone has auto paired to the car and via this to my dads phone?

[cosmosgrove]

Well I'm going to throw a spanner in the works here, I had assumed they were in my dads car.

It happened in his friends house, they didn't even use my dad's car, my dad did not connect to any wifi network. So this comes back to the two phones auto pairing with no notifications?

[bakeandfry]

If bluetooth is on, turn it off

[*tippy*toes*]

---

@bakeandfry wrote:
If bluetooth is on, turn it off

---

I agree. Mine isn't set to auto pair, but I always leave it turned off unless I need to use it. Once I've finished, I turn it back off again. It's surprising how many leave it on all the time. It only takes a quick swipe to turn it on and off again.