was this person's account hacked - or was she conned?

[kiwicockatoo]

Recently I sold my irish setter but I had not heard from the winning bidder at all after I sent her an invoice and a reminder. Yesterday I sent her a request for payment, stating I would file an npb if I did not hear from her.

She responded that her account had been hacked and someone had bid on a whole bunch of irish setters with her account. (she has an irish sounding id - guess the hacker's idea of a joke) Part of her email to me:

MY EMAIL REVEALS A REQUEST FOR MY EBAY PASSWORD ON 7-26. THEN SOMEONE BID AWAY AROUND 3 AM PST…. 90 BIDS HAVE BEEN PLACED. I HAVE THE IP ADDRESS THEY USED AND HAVE GIVEN IT TO EBAY IN HOPES THEY CAN TRACE IT.

She says her account was hacked, but from the statement above I suspect she responded to a phony email from ebay.....

Anyway, I believe her, no one would buy that many irish setters! I don't think filing a npb would be appropriate here - does this mean I'm out all my fees? I've written to ebay but I don't think I'll hear back from them soon.

If she did email out her password, I wonder if ebay will hold her responsible.

[Christie]

Wow! I guess people really do respond to those hoax emails. :(

If it were me, I would feel bad about filing a NPB on someone who got hacked. On the other hand, how else do you recover fees?

[arlene]

you still need to recover the fees. see if ebay responds yet...did you send it to the billing office? if they don't you'll need to leave a npb so you can collect.

remember it's not just the listing fees but also the final valuation fees.

[kiwicockatoo]

But if I file a npb - doesn't that mean the bidder gets a black mark against her account? Wouldn't that leave me open to getting negative feedback?

My listing fees were less than a dollar - and the final sale price was only 19.99, so I'm not out much. Cost of doing business?

I'm just a bit ticked she said her account was hacked - when it looks like she gave them the password herself.

I'll wait till I hear from ebay. I'm sure they'll help me through this.

[prtpix]

The other day I recieved a message from paypal administration telling me that:

This email confirms that Conducive Corp. has sent you $4.70 with PayPal.

To complete this payment, you must accept or deny it within 30 days
by going to and they had a link which I clicked on and the page asked me for my password.
It already had my ID.

I did put in my password because I knew that Conductive Corp. was going to refund money to me before I recieved this message.

But, I kind of felt uncomfortable about the message sending me to a place asking me for my password.

[Pink]

if this is a legitimate claim that ebay is aware of then i'm sure they can credit you back your fees without going through the npb process. i'd wait til i heard from ebay to do anything.

[edenart]

What a mess for that person. If I were her I would just close that eBay account and start a new one. Then, try to fix the mess. She's going to make a lot of people really angry. You can file the NPB and then when it's time to file for your FVF you can check the selection that says both of you decided not to complete the transaction. This will NOT put a black mark on her account.

Mariann -- In the future, even if you know you are expecting money, it's safer to always go directly to paypal and log in at the site. Then, do whatever needs to be done to accept your payment. You can never get stung if you never click any links from emails.

Then again, I clicked that weird al link and it could have been a virus! So, I guess the temptation just has to be strong enough to make you click it!!!

E

[timelady]

If a Paypal link takes me to a password page I always close it. The transaction is in your Paypal account anyway - you do NOT need to follow the link from the email if you feel it may be insecure. Instead, just open paypal.com in a new browser window and access your account your way. Then you can accept the payment in your transactions window. :)

Yes, sounds like this woman was taken in by a scam ebay email. I would file the npb for a couple reasons. You won't be the only one that won't get paid. So it's likely that she'll get 3 NPBs *anyway*. So you may as well get your fees back. Also, if she does lose her account (likely) then she can't neg you. What you can do is wait the maximum allowed period to claim back the fees so that she has less time to neg you. That also gives you time to think about it some more, and for eBay to sort out her status. You can file for your fees back with a NPB even if she's naru-ed, I pretty sure.

Tina.

[Wayne Gaudon]

easy enough to check .. check her id for bids .. won and active .. see if she has 90 or so lately. If she does then she was because no one goes that crazy on their own ID.

http://pages.ebay.com/search/items/search_bidder.html

click completed items.

[kiwicockatoo]

Thanks for your advice everyone. I will sit on this for a few days and see what ebay says. If I'm out a couple bucks no big deal.

But oh, this poor lady! Why would anyone do something like this?
Check this out:
http://cgi3.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?MfcISAPICommand=ViewBidItems&userid=kiltimagh&completed=1&sort=3&all=0&rows=25

[TeAnne]

You should file your NPB and FVF. In theory, the owner of the ID is not being harmed really. Because IF it was highjacked and NEGS are left etc, it will all be rectified once the Real owner of the ID claims back their ID.
Does this make sense? lol

PS I would also explain your situation and what you have to do to the said buyer and let her know that it's not a slur on her reputation and tell her you will back her all the way in helping her get her ID back on track. (Just a thought) GOOD LUCK Kiwi

[arlene]

file the npb and leave her positive feedback like it looks like some of the others have done.

check her recent feedback and you'll see what i mean

[kokoshep]

File the NPB and choose "mutually agreed not to complete the transaction"
your FVF will be refunded immediately , you dont have to wait the 10 days to file for refund on FVF. (i've done this a couple of times)

eBay does not refund the listing fees.

you may also want to let the buyer know you are filing the NPB with the agreed not to complete transaction and let her know it doesnt not count against her.