topic Re: Suspect account hack, price changed. in Selling

Suspect account hack, price changed.

mcbaj — Mon, 13 Jun 2016 23:28:29 GMT

Hey there.

I suspect my account was hacked, or eBay is playing some funny games.

I come back in after our long weekend to find that my top selling product is all but out of stock, I check it out, and the price had been changed on it from $57 to $9.50!!!!

I am the only person able to access this account, and i have touched anything, except for anwer a couple of message via my phone.

Do I have any right here to refuse the sales on these items? If I have to, I have to, but being such a small business this is going to hurt the weekends takings drastically.

I've shut my store down too temporaliy just so I can check on every item. Seems weired that its only one itme i have found so far, and it was our fastest mover.

Cheers.

Re: Suspect account hack, price changed.

springyzone — Mon, 13 Jun 2016 23:39:13 GMT

I have no idea what happened but that is a drastic change.

You could ring ebay to check what is going on.

If i were in your shoes and had sold a lot at that far too low price, I would send a message to every buyer & explain that something had gone wrong with your account and you needed to cancel all weekend sales. I would send a cancellation notice.

Some people may accept it, if I were a buyer I think I would have some sympathy for a seller in that situation.

Some buyers will probably kick up though and your ebay account might also take a battering with defects or whatever, but really, you can't afford to lose all that money & you don't have to carry through with the sale if the price was a mistake. So don't.

Re: Suspect account hack, price changed.

clarry100 — Mon, 13 Jun 2016 23:41:28 GMT

I would certainly get on the phone to ebay and discuss your concerns.

They should have a record of IP addresses where the logins occurred.

This should show your phone at least as you said you answered messages from it.

If those IP addresses are in any way associated with any of the sales that have occurred then there is something fishy going on.

Re: Suspect account hack, price changed.

mcbaj — Mon, 13 Jun 2016 23:47:15 GMT

Yeah thanks I'll get onto eBay and see what they can do. Not holding my breath though. I feel it will just fall on deaf ears, like everthing with them. But I'll try.

I'm just trying to find if its actually law that I have to follow through with the sales or not, before I do anything.

Re: Suspect account hack, price changed.

springyzone — Mon, 13 Jun 2016 23:55:20 GMT

I doubt anyone will take you to court over a $57 item, even if it is law, that is the good news.

Re: Suspect account hack, price changed.

clarry100 — Mon, 13 Jun 2016 23:58:59 GMT

If they can show you that your account was logged into from some IP address that has nothing to do with you or where you have been then I would think you do not have to follow thru with the sales.

Ask ebay about that while on the phone to them.

If you don't follow thru you are likely to have some unhappy customers on your hands as mentioned above.

So given that you could be up for some NEGs or defects at least.

Try explaining to the buyers what has happened and guage if they are understanding or not.

Re: Suspect account hack, price changed.

mcbaj — Tue, 14 Jun 2016 00:00:15 GMT

Yeah I know. But you know how some people get irrate. Even when they know good and well that it was a mistake and they are just taking advantage of it.

Re: Suspect account hack, price changed.

chameleon54 — Tue, 14 Jun 2016 02:34:35 GMT

This story is a major worry on several fronts. First, it is not that easy to hack into ebays system, even though a group of proffesionals did achieve it around 12 months ago. If someone really has hacked your account, you would need to be careful about your other personal accounts such as bank accounts etc. It may be your computer ( or wi fi ) they have gained access too, rather than ebays system and could be mon itering keystrokes for passwords.

Second, I realise the defect system was changed recently, but if you go ahead and cancel the sales, choosing item out of stock etc as the reason for cancellation, I think you will still end up with defects. That number of defects in such a short time could see your selling "privleges" downgraded or even stopped.

Perhaps others with more knowledge of the recent defect changes could add to this OR have a look at the defect policy yourself before cancelling.

Re: Suspect account hack, price changed.

rocket2retro — Tue, 14 Jun 2016 04:07:08 GMT

I would think it would be more likely to be an eBay system issue. I doubt anyone would bother hacking your ebay account to reduce the price on a single item. Whilst it is frustrating for you there is no real benefit to a potential hacker.

Re: Suspect account hack, price changed.

beautysecretfashion — Tue, 14 Jun 2016 05:15:58 GMT

When I was on holidays about a month ago... I logged into my ebay account from a different IP address (my sister) and I tried to do some maintenance on my listings so I wouldn't have to do it when I got home... the system would not allow me to. Which at the time I was annoyed but in hindsight I think it is a good thing....

Definately have an investigation done by ebay.... as previously advised they can track the history of your account etc... and once verified that it was not you but from a rogue they hopefully will look after you.

Also CHANGE ALL PASSWORDS NOW!!!!

Re: Suspect account hack, price changed.

clarry100 — Tue, 14 Jun 2016 05:21:39 GMT

As mentioned above...

Before you change passwords you need to do a scan of your computer for viruses or malicious software (Malware) like keystroke loggers.

If these things are present on your computer then changing passwords will achieve nothing and just be logged and sent out to the same hackers.

Re: Suspect account hack, price changed.

mcbaj — Tue, 14 Jun 2016 06:15:27 GMT

Thanks guys.

I was thinking today whether it was a wifi/ internet hack at my end. I have checked the a/v etc etc, changed passwords on everything aswell just incase.

I think rocket2retro might be on the money. Might. As I have narrowed it down to the price change happening on Friday arvo after work, around 4pm I think.I wasn't even there at that time... Friday afternoon funnies happening maybe???

I will also add that I have had a long ongoing issue with eBay showing incorrect postage rates too. E.g, I have free postage on an items and when I look it up , it only shows the express post option, unless you actually click on the item, it shows different. Linked somehow, not sure.

But I have sent messages out to all customers involved, I explained what has happened, and offered a discount and free express post. All so far have been understanding.

Re: Suspect account hack, price changed.

clarry100 — Tue, 14 Jun 2016 07:16:01 GMT

Well some weird stuff does happen very often on Fridays, but we have never seen anything permanent like this before.

The incorrect postage showing on search results is known and has been happening for a while. This is due to the search engine not recognising FREE postage correctly. And you get the result showing postage for one of your postage options instead e.g. cost of Express. This could put buyers off as they will see it as very high postage and not bother to visit the listing where they will see it correctly.

To "fix" (compensate for) this error you have to uncheck the Free Postage option in your postage policy and replace it with $0.00. The end result is the same but the software recognises it and displays postage properly. See the screen shot below for how to do it.

Re: Suspect account hack, price changed.

thecatspjs — Tue, 14 Jun 2016 07:50:11 GMT

Have you spoken with eBay ?

What was their response ?

Re: Suspect account hack, price changed.

digital*ghost — Tue, 14 Jun 2016 14:59:55 GMT

@mcbaj wrote:
As I have narrowed it down to the price change happening on Friday arvo after work, around 4pm I think.I wasn't even there at that time... Friday afternoon funnies happening maybe???

I will also add that I have had a long ongoing issue with eBay showing incorrect postage rates too. E.g, I have free postage on an items and when I look it up , it only shows the express post option, unless you actually click on the item, it shows different. Linked somehow, not sure.

Revisions to listings are recorded on the listing, at the time they occurred - the last revision is on the main listing page, with a link to view all revisions, so you should be able to get an exact date and time AEST (right down to the second the revision was submitted). If there is no revision recorded by eBay's system to account for the price change, then it would make it more likely to be a system error.

A couple of years ago, I saw a bunch of DVDs in a store selling at $1 (it started with a few, then over the next few hours, hundreds of DVDs in the store were updated to $1 BIN). I bought a few, but the more I thought about it the more I though something wasn't quite right, so messaged the seller - apparently, they were using a third party listing tool and it had caused a store-wide glitch. I was happy to cancel etc, but sadly they did get a few negs from other buyers.

In situations where technical issues affect auctions (eg the site goes down and many items can't have bids placed before they end), eBay issue notice that sales can be cancelled and adverse feedback may be removed, so if this is found to be a site issue, they should afford the same courtesies (should and will are two different things, though).

Re: Suspect account hack, price changed.

clarry100 — Tue, 14 Jun 2016 20:52:16 GMT

Excellent advice DG, as always.

I had forgotten about the revision history on each and every listing.

I noticed too that this "View all revisions" link is also available even tho the items are on either the SOLD or UNSOLD lists.

By the way you can find it just below the images area on the main listing and just under the two tabs for Description and Postage and Payments. Also tells you there exactly when the listing was last updated.