By by Ebay

dindude

After probably 12 years of ebay use I'm going to duck out.

Up until the last year I've never really had any issues, decent buyers and sellers if you take suitable precautions.

But it's getting so difficult now, guitar stuff isn't too bad but if you sell anything more generic such as an iPad or computer you are dealing with fuck wits, non payment, time wasters etc.

Then to cap it off over the last few days my account has been hacked and two transactions worth £120 have gone out - now I'll get my money back but the lack of interest from ebay is astonishing.

I just don't think they do enough to create a good safe buying / selling community - it's all driven so that everyone gets 100% feedback and as many people use it as possible. I think people should be marked down when they don't follow through etc. And they need to take fraud much more seriously.

So signing out - look for random household items in the classifieds soon!

Modulus_Amps

My account was hacked too recently and had a £120 transaction put through, at the same time they bombed my e-mail address hoping that I would miss the transaction I assume.

Paypal said this is increasing and if you have your paypal account linked to your ebay account for one click buying then you should remove it.

I changed all my passwords after that too.. on just about everything

BloodEagle

My ebay also got hacked recently and someone in Russia decided to try and buy an ipad with my paypal balance. Changed all my passwords etc, but ebay were not even slightly interested. To paypal's credit they refunded me within about 12 hrs.

Heartfeltdawn

dindude said:

After probably 12 years of ebay use I'm going to duck out.

Up until the last year I've never really had any issues, decent buyers and sellers if you take suitable precautions.

But it's getting so difficult now, guitar stuff isn't too bad but if you sell anything more generic such as an iPad or computer you are dealing with fuck wits, non payment, time wasters etc.

Then to cap it off over the last few days my account has been hacked and two transactions worth £120 have gone out - now I'll get my money back but the lack of interest from ebay is astonishing.

I just don't think they do enough to create a good safe buying / selling community - it's all driven so that everyone gets 100% feedback and as many people use it as possible. I think people should be marked down when they don't follow through etc. And they need to take fraud much more seriously.

So signing out - look for random household items in the classifieds soon!

As you know, I keep a very close eye on Ebay fraud since the JC issue we had on the forum. I've been a private user since 2002 and a very small business seller on there for 6 years. I've had more fraud in the last three years than all the other years combined. It's ridiculous to think that I've had more dodgy sellers and buyers in three years than all the years relying on people buying with cheques, postal orders, money in envelopes etc. 

It is easy to join Ebay as a buyer and seller: that ease for honest folk also makes it too easy for dodgy people to get on there. 

Ebay know how much fraud there is on there. I'm sure that the recent announcement that Ayden will be processing payments for Ebay in the future is an anti-fraud move. A few other things recently make me think Ebay is planning changes. 

1. The £1 £3 FInal Value Fee offers for private sellers have been busy recently. One offer came through that was very much against the norm: a £1 listing fee for any item with no final value fee. Charging a listing fee would help stamp out those awful ads where a new seller has nicked pictures of guitar pedals from other websites and claimed them as their own. People buy, eventually get refunded when no pedal turns up... I'm sure that EBay have been copping it on the refund front themselves. 

2. Feedback on Gumtree - recently sold a pedal on there and Gumtree asked me if I wanted to leave feedback as part of a beta trial. Feedback for sellers and buyers? Hmmm... sounds a bit excessive for what classified ads. My guess is that Ebay are looking at getting some of the tat off of Ebay and to push it onto Gumtree. Put the flea market stuff on Gumtree, keep the good stuff and sellers for Ebay. 

randella

Ebay does sometimes make you wonder about the human race.  My brother-in-law was recently hacked and his account used to make a load of moody transactions, for a low value, as fast as possible.

The first he knew of it was when he got an email notification of an Ebay message - one of the people sucked in by the scam was threatening to have the shit kicked out of him because her £29 brand-new PlayStation 4 failed to materialise.

Chalky

How does someone hack your ebay account? I understand hacking but to get through security takes more effort than its worth surely?

randella

Chalky said:

How does someone hack your ebay account?

 @Chalky ;; You use the same password and email address to join up on another, less secure (or scrupulous) site.  Your details are sold.  Hackers use the info to get into your Ebay, Paypal, Facebook, and the rest.

dindude

randella said:

Ebay does sometimes make you wonder about the human race.  My brother-in-law was recently hacked and his account used to make a load of moody transactions, for a low value, as fast as possible.

The first he knew of it was when he got an email notification of an Ebay message - one of the people sucked in by the scam was threatening to have the shit kicked out of him because her £29 brand-new PlayStation 4 failed to materialise.

Yeah, and that's it, it seems to be a place for the underground low-life - my transactions have been for FIFA coins, whatever the fuck they are, but even the real transactions I've done recently for my own selling have seemed to attract people who ask dumb questions and seem to struggle to integrate with the real world.

Chalky

randella said:

Chalky said:

How does someone hack your ebay account?

 @Chalky ;; You use the same password and email address to join up on another, less secure (or scrupulous) site.  Your details are sold.  Hackers use the info to get into your Ebay, Paypal, Facebook, and the rest.

Ah right thanks, so its user error of password management.

dindude

Chalky said:

How does someone hack your ebay account? I understand hacking but to get through security takes more effort than its worth surely?

In my case, nothing was showing up in my "bought" items and I had no notification that I had "won" the item. First I heard was when Paypal took the appropriate funds and this linked back to an ebay seller. Then in the background of my user account details there were these spurious purchases. The "sellers" had no ebay history. And again that's my point - I asked Ebay how this could happen - they couldn't be less interested, didn't even understand the question!

dindude

Chalky said:

randella said:

Chalky said:

How does someone hack your ebay account?

 @Chalky ;; You use the same password and email address to join up on another, less secure (or scrupulous) site.  Your details are sold.  Hackers use the info to get into your Ebay, Paypal, Facebook, and the rest.

Ah right thanks, so its user error of password management.

User error - what a knobish thing to say. See above, if someone had just simply logged on as me it would have been a different experience to the above.

randella

Chalky said:

randella said:

Chalky said:

How does someone hack your ebay account?

 @Chalky ;; You use the same password and email address to join up on another, less secure (or scrupulous) site.  Your details are sold.  Hackers use the info to get into your Ebay, Paypal, Facebook, and the rest.

Ah right thanks, so its user error of password management.

That's probably the most common way. 

Sometimes even well-respected sites can be hacked though - Sony's PlayStation online service was done some years back.  They copped a world of crap because it turned out they weren't even encrypting sensitive info stored in the backend.  That was folk's credit card details too!

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2016-04-26-sony-admitted-the-great-psn-hack-five-years-ago-today

randella

dindude said:

Chalky said:

randella said:

Chalky said:

How does someone hack your ebay account?

 @Chalky ;; You use the same password and email address to join up on another, less secure (or scrupulous) site.  Your details are sold.  Hackers use the info to get into your Ebay, Paypal, Facebook, and the rest.

Ah right thanks, so its user error of password management.

User error - what a knobish thing to say. See above, if someone had just simply logged on as me it would have been a different experience to the above.

To be fair, I'm not sure he meant it quite like that - it happens to the best of us.  Including yours truly who builds the bastard things for a living.

Anyway, I'm sure my entire Hotmail address book thoroughly enjoyed being emailed with links to far-right race hate organisations.

Chalky

randella said:

dindude said:

Chalky said:

randella said:

Chalky said:

How does someone hack your ebay account?

 @Chalky ;; You use the same password and email address to join up on another, less secure (or scrupulous) site.  Your details are sold.  Hackers use the info to get into your Ebay, Paypal, Facebook, and the rest.

Ah right thanks, so its user error of password management.

User error - what a knobish thing to say. See above, if someone had just simply logged on as me it would have been a different experience to the above.

To be fair, I'm not sure he meant it quite like that - it happens to the best of us.  Including yours truly who builds the bastard things for a living.

Anyway, I'm sure my entire Hotmail address book thoroughly enjoyed being emailed with links to far-right race hate organisations.

Thanks @randella and my question about hacking was genuine. "Hacking my account" means someone has gained access by getting through or around ebay account security. Not an easy task at all. Folks use the term ''hacking" as if any nerdy computer geek can break corporate grade security, which simply isn't true outside of tv shows and movies. Its a very rare ability.

sinbaadi

Is By by eBay their misguided attempt to launch a clothing collection aimed at the LGBT community?  Wacky dual-message spelling included.

usedtobe

Is it my imagination, or is there a lot less interesting stuff on the bay than there used to be..?

Heartfeltdawn

In the world of guitar pedals, yes. other platforms such as forums, Facebook groups, Gumtree, Reverb and others have taken away trade. I know a few sellers of cult/sci fi stuff who left Ebay as they were making more profit attending specialist fairs (one of them opened up a shop last year and is doing very well). 

Dominic

So much eBay now is not private sellers disposing of unwanted items but general retailers using it as advertising or their own on line shop window.
Worse still is the drop-shippers ......who I have learnt are simply commission intermediaries for goods that can range from a dental probe to an exhaust system for a lorry or a childs climbing frame ......these are usually Chinese or far Eastern goods sold with zero product knowledge on a "throw enough mud and some will stick basis "..........it's a real pain getting any help or advice or returning faulty or mis-delivered /broken items.
Bring back the High street.

ronnyb

usedtobe said:

Is it my imagination, or is there a lot less interesting stuff on the bay than there used to be..?

There's definitely a lot less private sellers. The other day i was idly looking at private sales of Gibson acoustics. I think there were 2 in the UK. 

JezWynd

The fact that eBay are trying to tempt sellers back in with £1/£3 final fee offers would indicate that they're starting to notice the fall-off in small sellers (who quite often have the more interesting items that generate clicks).

Heartfeltdawn

JezWynd said:

The fact that eBay are trying to tempt sellers back in with £1/£3 final fee offers would indicate that they're starting to notice the fall-off in small sellers (who quite often have the more interesting items that generate clicks).

Then maybe Ebay UK should adopt the same guitar FVF policy as the US site. 

https://tamebay.com/2017/05/ebay-com-slash-fees-for-guitars-amps-and-accessories.html

And then Ebay UK's senior people need to pull their head out of their arse and realise that the dwindling variety of items for sale on their site isn't entirely down to high fees: it's down to feeling that you're going to get ripped off as a seller. 

The drive to make things simple and easy for buyers hasn't been matched with good protection for good sellers.