Thick Fog Settles Over eBay Security
Hey, it’s a noble idea… (h/t to AuctionBytes)
eBay Tracks Members’ Computer Usage in Anti-Fraud Initiative
“eBay is launching a “Trusted Selling with Identity Confirmation” initiative in its efforts to fight the problem of account hijacking in which fraudsters take over users’ accounts to list scam auctions.”
Noble and idealistic but, what is being required bears some additional thought. Not too much thought. Certainly not rocket science thought.
The reason for this is stated in the announcement;
“One of the ways criminals attempt to defraud people on eBay is by gaining access to member accounts with well-established reputations which they then use to set up listings in that person’s name. They gain this access often through a phishing email that convinces an unsuspecting member to click a link and enter their User ID and password.”
Well, okay, unless you’ve been living in a cave you know about phishing emails. You might even get caught by one within an unsuspecting moment so, sure, understandable.
The solution?
“eBay will start noting which computers members typically use to conduct their buying and selling activity. After our data collection phase, sometime in June eBay will begin verifying our sellers when they list an item to ensure they are logging in from the same machines they have successfully used previously - usually a home or business computer.”
Then, if anything feels hinky, “eBay will make an automated call to the phone number you have registered with us to confirm it is really you. We may also prompt you to verify your identity in other ways.”
And my thought is - if I’ve gained access to your eBay account now that this announcement has been made, the very first thing I’m going to do is edit your profile and change the phone number! To my throw away thank you…
Tags: anti-fraud initiative, eBay, eBay security policies, eBay SellersRelated Stories
POSTED IN: Reality
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