| John Glassey (22), a second year psychology student at the University of Dundee, awoke on Wednesday morning to phone calls from anxious Ebay sellers seeking payment for goods he had not himself purchased.
“I checked my Ebay account to find it had been taken over,” he explained. “My account name had been changed and so had my correspondence e-mail address — so this enabled the hackers to place as many bids as they liked without me knowing.”
Mr Glassey — who describes himself as security conscious when it comes to computers and the Internet — was quick to contact Ebay to alert them of the rip-off.
Customer support cancelled the auctions and enabled him to regain control of his account.
“They informed me around 50 bids had been placed on high-value items such as cameras and phones — some of which had been successful,” Mr Glassey continued.
“I’m glad I managed to end the auctions when I did — but I received no notification from Ebay to tell me my account details had been altered.
“It appears to have been so easy for the hacker to do this, it’s very worrying.”
Even though the worst of the problem is now over, Mr Glassey has been left with doubt about Ebay, and has taken measures to cancel his account with the site — a process that can take up to 180 days.
“I’m always really careful about looking out for spoof Internet pages or handing out personal details over the Internet.
“However, it does worry me that people who aren’t very conscious of viruses or ‘key logging’ software could fall victim to such a scam.”
A spokesman for Ebay said, “It sounds as though it might have been a case of ‘phishing’, which is fraudulently acquiring sensitive information, such as passwords.
“Basically, it means Mr Glassey has supplied a third party with personal information without knowing.”
He went on, “Ebay does have measures in place to enable users to protect themselves.
“Ebay keeps an eye on suspicious account activity but, with over 212 million users worldwide, it can be quite hard to monitor.”
Dr Tim Thompson, a lecturer in Forensic Anthropology at the University of Dundee added, “On the whole, most forms of identity theft or fraud don’t become apparent until long after the event.
“Never divulge personal information like passwords or account details over e-mail — especially if they appear suspicious.
“It’s also important to keep anti-virus software up to date and, if you are using a computer in a public place, never tick the Internet prompt box that ask you if you would like it to remember your details.” |
