Identity Theft on eBay Classifieds: How To Protect Yourself

EBay Classifieds is a household name for anyone who sells goods online or is looking for a bargain. The popular portal is currently reporting a negative record: cases of fraud and identity theft are going through the roof. You can protect yourself with these simple tricks.

Second hand bargains, used electronics, local listings – eBay Classifieds has it all and more. The popular portal enables consumers to easily trade with one another. Now, however, you have to report a negative record: The number of fraud cases is exploding.

eBay classifieds: Identity theft is climbing rapidly

The number of inquiries related to third party takeovers is on eBay Classifieds this year increased by 250 percent. The cases in which the relevant account had to be blocked increased by 200 percent. The company has already taken several steps to improve security.

“In the past few months it turned at times almost half of all inquiries to our customer service for account takeover. Most of the time, the actual account holders contact us when they notice that their user account is suddenly offering things that they have not set themselves, ”said Jöran Rieß from eBay Classifieds in a press release.

Fraudsters can offer supposed articles through your account and collect money without the goods ever being available. The problem are mostly Passwords that are too weak or leaked. Since many people use the same combination and connected e-mail accounts to log in to different services, this opens up opportunities for fraudsters to attack. Third-party takeovers do not only affect eBay classifieds. Linked accounts can be compromised easily, especially when an email account is taken over.

What you have to do to protect your account

eBay classifieds advises: Do not use the same password more than once. Best exceeds the minimum password requirements of the service providers. The longer it is, the safer it is. Password phrases can also help: take a memorable sentence and use the first letter of the word as a password.

We’ll show you the tips you need to know in order to create better passwords from now on:

Anyone who threatens to lose track of things can too use professional password managers. So you can manage passwords centrally and have them created automatically without losing track of things. You can find our current recommendations in this article.

If you are concerned or suspect your account on eBay classifieds or other services may have been cracked, contact your online service through the official channels. Customer support can then take further steps.