eBay Identity Theft – Whats the Latest Tactic?

Your eBay username and password are precious to you, so should they ever fall into the wrong hands the results can be devastating. The good news however; is that obtaining both your username and password from you is incredibly difficult to do. So just what are the latest techniques that scam artists are using to conduct eBay identity theft? Read on and find out!

Ebays “My Mesages” Service For Direct Communication

You see one of the convenience features that eBay makes available for its sellers and buyers is the ability for either one of them on either side of a transaction to communicate directly with one another by way of “My Messages”. For instance, if a potential customer needs to inquire further about a listing, they can simply do so by sending a direct message. It goes to the sellers email in box.

The Respond Now Feature On “My Messages”

To make it as fast and simple as possible for the seller to respond, eBays My Messenger service has an instant respond mechanism. Simply click on “Respond Now”, enter your name and password, type in an answer, click send and the response is sent directly back to the senders email box. Simple and fool proof right?

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Ebay Identity Theft By Way Of Fake eBay Emails

Well it would be fool-proof, if not for the fact that scammers have devized ways of sending fake emails that are virtually indistinguishable from legitimate eBay emails. Fake eBay emails with frantic confusing messages such as “ where is the item I paid for”. Or “Have you receive the money I sent”. The idea is that even if the recipient doesn’t understand who sent the message, he or she will want to be of help straightening the matter out.

It’s Going On Right Now, Even As you Read This

So they will type in their eBay user name and password to respond just like normal and instantly the con artist who sent the email has them both. Also hopefully the responder who has just given up his password and user name will simply delete the email when it won’t instantly send back, just assume there was some kind of problem with it and not change his or her username and password.

One Simple Rule To Protect Yourself From eBay Identity Theft

So how can can you avoid falling victim to ebay identity theft if the fake eBay emails look exactly like the genuine article? Its simple if you just follow one simple rule that applies to unfamiliar unsolicited eBay emails. That rule is to go directly to eBay to log in to send your response, rather then using the instant response feature. As it stands right now thats your only protection.

The Sad Truth About Identity Theft

Truth is we all have about a 1/20 chance each year of being affected by identity theft. Yep, about 5% of the population each and every year and rising. Keep yourself protected, see exactly what I use for identity theft protection