LEARNING THE HARD WAY:  HOW TO PREVENT FRAUDELENT CHARGES.

After over a year of selling on eBay and being very cautious with my password and personal information, I was CAUGHT in the Internet Hacking Game.  How they got into my PayPal account I will never know but they did disguised as EBAY SELLER FEES and hit my account for almost $150. 

I guess we should be happy that it was only that small; it could have been larger but it DOES HURT as we are a small family business. 

Spent the day filing Fraud Report with eBay, changing passwords, and all the other wonderful things you have to do.  Took a few hours to get it all filed. 

eBay will investigate and notify me in 7 days time as to the outcome.  Since it is clearly fraud and they used eBay Seller Fees as the Buyer, seems like it will be an open and shut case but we will see....

Wonder how they get away with it when the money obviously goes into an account--so whose account is it? 

Anyway, the lesson I learned and what this Review is about is AVOIDING FRAUD.  This is what I learned:

NEVER EVER SHARE YOUR PASSWORD WITH ANYONE!!!

CHANGE YOUR PASSWORD FREQUENTLY--I MADE THE MISTAKE OF KEEPING THE SAME PASSWORD SINCE WE BEGAN THE BUSINESS ON EBAY--BIG, BIG MISTAKE!

MAKE YOUR PASSWORD AS COMPLICATED AS YOU CAN--LETTERS, NUMBERS, SYMBOLS*#@#.  MAKE THOSE HACKERS WORK FOR IT.

WATCH YOUR ACCOUNT DAILY--I WAS LUCKY TO HAVE CAUGHT THIS EARLY IN THE DAY.  THEY HAD DONE THE DEED AT 2:30 A.M. SO IT WASN'T CAUGHT IMMEDIATELY BUT WITHIN 12 HOUR TIME SLOT. 

CHECK YOUR EMAILS ON A REGULAR BASIS--THESE GUYS ACTUALLY SENT ME AN EMAIL CONFIRMING MY PAYMENT OF EBAY SELLER FEES!

SEND ANY QUESTIONABLE EMAILS TO "SPOOF" THEY GET RIGHT BACK TO YOU.

ALSO, BE CAREFUL IF YOU ARE BREACHED--THEY SENT ME AN EMAIL CONFIRMING I HAD CHANGED MY PASSWORD.  AGAIN--SEND ANY QUESTIONABLE EMAILS TO "SPOOF"

THESE HACKERS ARE VERY GOOD--SHAME THEY CAN'T PUT THEIR TALENTS TO SOMETHING USEFUL AND HELPFUL TO THE WORLD.

Hope this helps you and saves you from the frustration, helplessness and anger we experienced today.

Mary and Tom