When My Ebay Account was Hacked

Ever get the feeling that there's just no winning against big corporations? I know I do. Every so often, though, I think that I find one that isn't so bad, one that seems to look out for the little guy. Then, what has always happened so far anyway, I get smacked in the face by reality. Let me share one experience with you about a dot-com that is one of the largest out there, and how I foolishly thought they were different.

June 21^st is my daughters' birthday. They are twins. They also have autism. We were having a good little fifth birthday party this year. We'd had the cake, presents, and all the guests had gone. While enjoying this downtime with my daughters I received a phone call.

"Is this Laura?" a man asks after my boyfriend hands me the phone.

"Yes," I answer, suspecting that he is a telemarketer in need of some etiquette lessons.

"How do you want to pick up your four wheeler?" he asks.

"I didn't buy a four wheeler. I think you might have the wrong person," I answer.

What followed was a tirade of how I "won" a four wheeler that he was selling on eBay. I informed him that I most certainly hadn't bid on one. He then ensued to become infuriated with me, telling me to check with my kids because they probably did it. Finally, after threatening me that he was going to file papers with his attorney on Monday, and that he was a Power Seller with eBay the phone call ended. I don't remember if I hung up on him or what. I was very angry, and I was crying.

I rushed to my computer to check my eBay account. There were over $800,000 worth of "won" auctions. I immediately changed my password, and then sat staring at what someone probably thought was a very funny and clever hack job. They had won auctions for BMW's, a helicopter, a jet engine, some boats, motorcycles, and four wheelers. I, however, wasn't amused.

So, instead of enjoying my children's birthday, I sat in front of the computer trying to get help from eBay's Live Chat. EBay doesn't list a phone number on their website. I suppose they don't want to be bothered by all the calls.

Thinking that the eBay representative will have an easy cure all for my problem, I am disgusted to discover that I am responsible for contacting all of the sellers involved in the auctions. I am to tell them that "my account was compromised," and to file a non-paying bidder (NPB) form against me to collect their selling and listing fees from eBay.

To say that I had many enraged emails is an understatement. I had people threatening to: sue me, harass me via my auctions by bidding and then not paying,
calling me all sorts of mean names, and flat out not believing that I really had my account hacked. I also had several phone calls from people telling me that, "You are the proud, new owner of..." whatever item they thought they had sold. I don't blame them for being angry, but I don't think they should've been angry with me.

The whole episode lasted at least two months. I had my account shut down twice due to the NPB forms that people were told to file against me to get their fees refunded. Despite the fact that I worked with live chat representatives about half a dozen times to make sure my account was noted as having been compromised, I still received the repercussions from what some low level computer hacking nerd had done.

When my account was shut down I had about thirty auctions running, several with decent bids on them. When my account was reinstated, all the information and work I'd entered into those auctions were lost; eBay glibly informed me that I'd just have to enter them all again from scratch. I guess the twenty some hours I put into posting the auctions that was lost was no big deal. The fact that at any time my account and all auctions could be shut down and lost again didn't exactly encourage me to relist the items. It takes three NPB forms to get an account shut down. By the time I could get to Live Chat and have them remove one, I might already have several more being filed. There were a total of roughly thirty auctions that had been fraudulently bid on, so I had quite a few NPB forms still coming.

EBay did the minimum to help me or the sellers in this whole deal. I feel that as the company, they are responsible for helping customers through these misfortunes. I lost at least two weeks worth of work time trying to reconcile the whole matter. EBay's condolences for that: "We're really sorry, but that's all we can do to help." How about contacting the sellers instead of having me do it? That way they will know I'm not just some shmuck trying to renege on a business deal. How about going into my account, looking at all the auctions involved and refunded all fees to all of the parties involved instead of delegating it to the sellers who only have the information that the account-hacked buyer gave them? There were so many short comings in the whole transaction that I started to give up on eBay for good. After I cooled off I decided to stick with my eBay account, as eBay is the most diverse auction site out there. But, since they are the biggest, they have unfortunately adopted the ethics and priorities of many large corporations: whatever is best for the financial bottom line is our number one goal!

I feel discouraged and extremely disappointed after this mess, but I still catch myself going back to eBay for hard to find items and cheap stuff. I don't fool myself into thinking that if I have a problem that eBay will be there to help me though. It's everyone for themselves.