Ebay locks account for unusual login activity without ability to reset password through website.
Once locked out they also de-activate all active listings and remove them. Being Locked Out. Account Locked. Unable to reset password. Reset Password.
You have to call using a previous order number (good luck if you don't have one) to identify your account, otherwise there is no way to get a hold of a customer representative.
The representative will ask 6 questions about where you lived, what license plate you have had in the past, what certificates you have had in the past and more.
Ebay's automatic security protocol to keep people save on the platform is annoying. Being an Amazon Customer for 15 years, not once did Amazon lock me out of the account and ask invasive financial and private information questions not posted on this platform.
Ebay is obviously incapable of website security and manages security at the expense of user experience. It is absolutely unacceptable. Their security website team should be fired.
12345jamesstamps
·2 years agoHmmm...most of us sellers don't sell something for $2000.00 or $600. items in a month. Looks like its for your own protection.
bvhm74
OP2 years agoThe locking out of the account was unrelated to seller activity, in fact nothing was sold or bought and nothing changed, it was just Ebay's misguided system of checking IPs and blocking access if they think it is unauthorized which pretty much is always not the case. If it really was unauthorized then some hacker would in addition make changes such as:
Change:
1. delivery address of items bought
2. banking routing and account number
etc
None of what changed in my case. Obviously they could combine IP checking and assumed unauthorized access with suspicious activity after assumed unauthorized access and then block the account, that is the only thing that would make sense, in addition to actually having a human validate that this automatic block is actually legitimate.
Outsourcing your entire IT department and Security department to India is what causes these issues.
yuzuha
·2 years agoSo... why did you not have two-factor authentication enabled?
simba6
·2 years agoThe problem is there is no good way to know who is logging on. They can get a general location of where you are from your ISP and they do take a hash of the MAC addresses in your computer. Other than that there is only your password. There are a lot of account take overs and they have to do what they can to stop that. No one wants national ID cards or implanted RFID chips.
bvhm74
OP2 years agoThat might be so, but they could simply update their password policy to require more elaborate passwords that can't be easily hacked. Again Amazon and using the same password for like a decade has never had an issue. That tells me their IP scripts and location checks should obviously scrapped as they don't work. The only thing that does having a private password that nobody else has.
simba6
·2 years agoNo matter what the password is, if malware gets in a users computer crooks can get a copy of it.
bvhm74
OP2 years agoThat would almost be on the user. Why would ebay have to be responsible for someones poor malware hygene?
chapeau-noir
·2 years agoeBay would have to deal with the consequences of the account take-over so they have some skin in the game.
bvhm74
OP2 years agoThere are much better way to deal with it then making all your customers mad and locking out accounts that have incorrectly been identified as having had suspicious login activity. Let me give examples:
For accounts with suspicious activity DO NOT LOCK out any customer and remove any of their selling posts and instead:
1. if item is old : provide a confirmation message via email or text, did you want to sell this item: yes/no
2. if item is bought: provide a confirmation message via email or text, did you want to buy this item: yes/no
Just like any business you have to accept a certain level of theft, warranty claims etc that is part of doing business. Amazon probably has hacked accounts as well, but doesn't boot legitimate businesses where no transaction in fact has taken place, and nothing has changed ( no sales, no buys) that is just stupid.
If the user selects yes any alert should go away until the next Buy or Sell. It doesn't make any sense to prevent the flow of business with a system that obviously does not correctly work.
maxine*j
·2 years agoI used the same password for more than a decade at Amazon, and Amazon recently forced me to change it without even indicating why. I was quite annoyed, but I had only two options: Change the password. Forget about using Amazon.
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bvhm74
OP2 years agoThat is annoying indeed, was there anything about the password that might have been unsecure? Like <=8 characters, no numbers, or no special characters etc? I think requiring you to change the password if the platform suddenly changes their password policy is one thing - and they should really let users know way ahead of time.
ebay just unilaterally blocks you from changing it, i tried the reset password and it wouldn't even allow that through the website (even though my account email, phone number, etc had not changed during this supposedly unauthorized access event block). Having ebay force customers to use secure passwords, or even change them if they don't meet security requirements would actually be in their best interest, not IP blocking.
yuzuha
·2 years agoI mean, clearly YOUR password wasn't secure if someone else was able to figure it out...
maxine*j
·2 years agoNo. It was good. I grew up, computer-wise, in the Unix world. Worked in fields where security was a big concern. Retired now and use a desktop, Linux OS, wired ethernet, etc. Am considered by family and friends to be a right old PITA about privacy and security. 😄
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gone.c-33
·2 years agoI don’t think eBay, or anyone, should follow online security advice from someone who uses the same passwords for decades on end…
bvhm74
OP2 years agoYour statement makes a lot of assumptions that are incorrect. The same password is secure day one and day 1Million. You assume old passwords are not secure. Incorrect. You assume not changing your password is insecure. Incorrect.
Having a secure password is all you need something anybody could learn from including ebay. Some platforms require you to change your password periodically because their own password policies are insecure, for example requiring you to use # characters, with one capital letter, one number, one special character. Instead the longer the better and with a mix of characters.
gone.c-33
·2 years agoI never posited that your password was not secure, I said it’s not good security wise to keep the same password for decades.
I don’t rely on websites, none of which are 100% invulnerable, to keep my accounts secure, I change my passwords every year.
bvhm74
OP2 years agoThat is a good practice, I am not sure what a good frequency would be for changing a password, but occasionally doing it there wouldn't be any downsides to it. Websites typically only require such a move if data and maybe part of passwords was leaked online. In this ebay case I am not aware of any ebay hacking event that leaked customer information online, which is another reason they should not be asking you to change the password by relying solely on IP monitoring.
reallynicestamps
·2 years agoNo one wants national ID cards or implanted RFID chips.
Yet no one minds demands for driving licenses as proof of identity.
I don't drive so my provincial ID card has been very useful since we Canadians cannot in most circumstances be required to provide our Social Insurance Number card. The only problem is that it is almost identical to, but cannot be used instead of,my provincial health insurance card.
The chip of course came free with my covid vaccination. But I digress.
bvhm74
OP2 years agoAnd on a side note given that there are supposedly so many hacked accounts using ebay, who says that ebay servers do not get hacked?
Having to provide the drivers license, receipts, or bank statements and proof of address (and the most intemate of all information your phone number for dual sign in protection) to ebay is like giving them all your information then pretending that they will never get hacked and leak all your data online themselves.
To me it is a time bomb and the more ebay asks to confirm users identities the more they are violating and risking the privacy of their users and customers. I think their security system needs a thorough overhaul.
reallynicestamps
·2 years agoOr to look at it another way, AZ doesn't care if your selling account is taken over by scammers while eBay is following sensible guidelines to confirm that any unusual activity, including a sudden change in the type or value of listings, was done with the knowledge of the account holder.
EBay has also taken the opportunity presented by the switch from PP to Managed Payments to confirm identities since they are now required to send tax forms to any American who takes payment over $600 gross on their platform.