How did someone get my password for my eBay account?

Question

..and what can I do to make sure they don't get my new one?

Answer 1

Could be a friend, hacker, spyware, keylogger or anything of this sort. The best way to defend against these would be to up your defenses. I use ad-aware se personal, ewido antispy, spybot search and destroy, and Kaspersky antivirus and firewall. Run these types of programs and run them frequently (at least once a week). If you visit shady websites, try not to. If you must, DO NOT click on any type of download at all!

As far as your password, make sure it is comprised of letters (uppercase and lowercase), numbers and symbols. The longer your password is with the more of the aforementioned items incorporated into them the harder it becomes to acquire you password. Make sure your paypal account and the email address you have associated with ebay and paypal have good password also. Change your secret question on your email. Don't use something like what is my dog's name b/c all your best friends know who fluffy is!

Someone just recently hacked into my wifes myspace account and posted all kinds of obscene blogs. I kept telling her to change her password from the same 7-letter password she had been using on email and everything else for the last 8 years. I guess that's part of being married though because she didn't listen to me and it took being hacked for her to realize this!

In short though, use a good, strong password and change it every now and then. Don't get complacent when it comes to security of your personal information!

Answer 2

Passwords, don't you love them. Everywhere you go on the net, you need a password. How can you remember all those passwords. Which is the first step in someone finding your password.

1. Use one password for every site I go to - and if I can pick my own ID, use the same ID too. (Now if just one of those web sites is a bad guy, it's a simple process to go looking for your ebay account).

2. It's so hard to remember my password, I'll just use [pick one: first name, spouses name, "password", my initials and birth day, my pet's name] - no one will guess that. (You'd be surprised how quickly someone can get just a little info about you and guess your password).

3. I'll write my password down and put it [pick one: under my keyboard, on my monitor, in my desk drawer, on my bookcase, on my phone]. (Bad guys know where to look for the written password. They even figure out when you write it down backwards).

4. Ok, I'm smarter now. I'll add some numbers to my name. (Bad guys got software that can very quickly go thru the dictionary and add numbers on the end and crack your password).

These are just a few of the obvious patterns that make password cracking easy. A really good password should have upper and lower case letters, numbers, and special characters. And it should be changed at least monthly.

Here's some examples of what look good, but are still easy to crack: H0t1c3 (uses numbers 0 and 3 as letter o and e - Hotice); n0ba115 (zero = o, 1= l, 5 = s: noballs).

The best way to develop a password is to start with a phrase like, "Why go to Transylvania for 90 days?" would yield "Wg2T490d?" which is a completely unpredictable password but has a simple memory trigger phrase.

Answer 3

Check with family members and others who may use your account to verify that they did not make any changes.


There have been reports of people attempting to obtain eBay member’s private information by sending emails that impersonate eBay. These emails, called spoof email request members to send account and personal information in a reply email or enter this information through a spoof (fake) Web site.

If you provided confidential information through a spoof Web site, you should take measures to both secure your eBay account and your identity.

Secure Your eBay Account

Change your eBay password immediately and create a secure password. If the password on your email account is the same as your eBay account, you must also change your email password. Do not use the same password for both your eBay account and your email account.
Go to Securing Your eBay Account and Reporting Account Theft to learn more about what you can do if you suspect that an unauthorized party has accessed or has attempted to access your eBay account.

Answer 4

Fake e-mails that look like they came from eBay are often used to try to trick you into giving up your password. They usually tell you that something is wrong with your account and that you need to confirm your account details. They usually link you to a website which looks just like eBay - but it is not. As soon as you type your password, they have it and can hijack your account. This practice is called "phishing" and is quite common; PayPal and bank accounts are also hijacked using this method.

So, what to do? Change your password immediately. Then, take some simple precautions in the future.

Never, NEVER type personal info on a page you were linked to by an e-mail. If you receive an e-mail that looks legit, be safe and type the address of the site in yourself... and double check it. If the e-mail is real, they will have posted something on their website about it, or you will be notified when you try to log in. Be sure you are at the real website, then try to log in. If nothing seems different, the e-mail was almost certainly a fake.

Always check the URL of the page you typed. Phishers often register phony websites with addresses very similar to real ones. People who accidentally mistype the address end up at the scam site, and can be tricked into trying to login and giving the phishers their personal information. The safest thing to do is carefully type the address in yourself, double check it, and then bookmark the page and use that to get to it in the future.

Answer 5

Your password was probably guessed, most likely by someone you know. Come up with a new password that isn't easy to guess (e.g. one comprised of random letters and numbers).

Answer 6

i have your old one