A few days ago, I discovered my email account was hijacked. I was completely locked out all info changed etc. While trying to recover it, it dawned on me that I have emails from ebay and paypal in my account.... lots of them. I went to paypal (which had the same PW as my email) and sure enough, they got in there and were trying to transfer $$ (actually pounds as they were in London). I cancelled those transactions, reported to PP... Oddly enough they never changed my PP info or password...
I went to my eBay account which had a different PW but since they had control of my email, they were able to change the PW there too. In 5 short days, they had bought 34 cell phones and I have 161 messages from ticked off UK sellers - and I mean really mad in some cases.
The hacker kept insisting they couldn't use the PayPal button and needed the sellers PP account name/email. Most all sellers provided the info. Then the hackers would insist they had already paid. These conversations all happened in my eBay messaging. They tried to buy a couple of phones with my PP but I have it attached to a checking account with a debit card and there is ALWAYS less than $5 in that account and ALWAYS less than $5 in my PP.
Somehow tho, I gather they were able to hack into other PP accounts (probably with the emails they were asking for) and pay for at least 4 phones. A total of about 1,600 pounds....However, the status in PP was listed as "pending". The sellers mailed the phones anyway (while still in pending mode) then the transactions were cancelled... Quite the scheme....
Thankfully, a couple of sellers had reported my account for non payment (after 3 days or so
) and eBay had locked my account due to the sellers reports and the suspicious activity. Ebay assured me no one lost $$ and they would send an email to all the sellers explaining the situation. Somehow, I think the sellers will lose tho. They should have never mailed the phones until funds were released from PP.
Anyway, what a mess!! But my real point here is: Don't be dumb like me! Keep your PWs different!! Also, back up your contacts. I think I've lost all mine since I hadn't done this for a very long time
But the biggest lesson I have learned is that if buyers are having trouble with PP, don't send them your info directly... Work with PP and eBay to resolve. The more of a hurry the buyer is in (in this case thief) the redder the flags should be!!!
And finally, for the very few of you that I have my personal email....
No.....
I have not taken a short vacation to London where I was mugged at knife point and all my $$ and ID's stolen.
Nor am I being held hostage by the hotel manager until I pay my bill....and most importantly...
I DO NOT need you to wire me $$$ which I will repay once I am safely home!!
and just in case....
Nor am I an heir to ANY vast fortune that I can share with you if only you send me $$ so I can travel to my homeland in order to claim my money, jewels, and/or take my rightful place as ruler of said nation which happens to have large deposits of oil, diamonds, gold or any other riches
Stay safe out there!
