eBay: Phishing likely to blame for members' data theft

eBay's security experts have determined that it's highly likely that whoever posted confidential information about its members in a company discussion forum this week stole the data via an e-mail phishing scam, an eBay spokeswoman said Thursday.

The perpetrator of the data disclosure on about 1,200 eBay members didn't hack into eBay systems, spokeswoman Nichola Sharpe said in an e-mail interview, reiterating an assurance eBay made when the incident happened on Tuesday.

eBay is working with law enforcement to take action against the fraudster, she said, while declining to answer whether the person has been identified or caught. Because the situation is delicate, eBay can't fully disclose the information it has gathered, she said.

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eBay shoplifter nabbed in France

BESANCON, France (AFP) - A debt-ridden French shoplifter who sold stolen supermarket items on eBay is to face justice after police became suspicious about her low-priced loot, officials said Thursday.

The 33-year-old woman, who is estimated to have stolen more than 85,000 euros' (120,000 dollars') worth of goods from the Leclerc store in her hometown of Doubs, eastern France, since 2005, is due to appear in court December 7 following her arrest.

Officers zeroed in on eBay vendor "RapidDVD" after coming across DVDs, video games, CDs and razor blades she was selling well below market price, still in their original wrapping.

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Confidential Ebay Member Info Posted on Forum

Ebay.com reports on their blog that at some time this morning the names and contact information of some 1200 Ebay users were posted on their public "Trust and Safety" forum. The posts also appeared to contain members credit card information.

The forum has been shut down while Ebay and LiveWorld (their forums vendor) take steps to remedy the situation. Ebay reports that they are now in the process of attempting to contact affected members by phone.

Revealed: the eBay Banksy print fraud

Unauthorised prints by the anonymous graffiti artist Banksy have been sold on eBay as limited edition, signed works, by employees of the company which publishes and authenticates the artist’s works on paper, Pictures on Walls (POW). These have been stamped with a replica of the POW blindstamp and some of them carry forged signatures. The prices for the prints have then been raised by an illegal practice known as shill bidding in which sellers or their associates make offers for goods to inflate the price artificially.

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Tier-3 warns over hacking kits for sale on eBay

Tier-3, the behavoural analysis IT security specialist, has warned companies that hacker toolkits - which were previously confined to specialist hidden forums on the Internet - are now being sold openly on auction sites such as eBay.

"This is a serious development," said Geoff Sweeney, Tier-3's CTO, who added that, where previously would-be hackers had to score `brownie points' to gain access to the hacker forums and source the kits, the fact that they are now on open sale on eBay is very worrying.

"It basically puts high level hacking tools, including surreptitious trojan loaders and Web site hacking utilities, into the hands of almost any Internet user - including novices - providing they have an eBay and Paypal account," said Sweeney.

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The Problem of 'Fake' eBay VeRO Members

By Ina Steiner
AuctionBytes.com

Many eBay sellers have disputed the legitimacy of VeRO claims regarding copyright and trademark rights. But some have also begun complaining about the legitimacy of the members themselves. They say some VeRO members do not have the rights to the intellectual property they claim, and use eBay's program to remove sellers' listings.

A seller named Tom who said eBay pulled three of his listings because of reports by a fake VeRO member, said, "If this keeps up, they will put me and a lot of their sellers out of business. And unless abated, these skammers now know they can claim anything and get away with it."

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Police Probe eBay Equipment Sales

Deerpark — The Deerpark police commission is investigating a police sergeant who is accused of listing department equipment for sale on eBay.

Sgt. Liz Sullivan confirmed yesterday that she has been suspended with pay since Aug. 15. "I have not been told why by any Deerpark officials," said Sullivan, who declined to comment further about the matter.

An outside agency informed the town that Deerpark police equipment was listed on the online auction site eBay, Deerpark Supervisor Mark House said. The equipment, which he wouldn't identify, is now in the town's possession.

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Cosmetics group L'Oréal reports eBay to the police

The cosmetics group L'Oréal is no longer prepared to stand idly by and watch counterfeit perfume by brands such as Giorgio Armani and Lancôme being sold on the Internet auction platform eBay. According to media reports the company has reported the online auction house eBay to the police in France, Belgium, Germany, the UK and Spain. "We have noticed that the sale of counterfeit perfumes has increased dramatically; this not only constitutes a trade problem but also creates a problem of trust for our customers," the French media report a spokesman of the company as saying. According to L'Oréal the company had engaged in talks with eBay with the intention of coming to an amicable solution to the problem. The talks had, however, failed to yield any concrete results, the company observed.

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Seattle Man Gets Two Years for eBay Fraud

A Seattle man has been sentenced to two years in prison for selling computers and cameras on eBay but never actually delivering the goods.

Over a four-year period, Jordan Dias, 40, collected more than US$94,000 from victims who thought they were purchasing items from a legitimate seller, the U.S. Department of Justice said Friday in a statement.

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Botnet Steals eBay Accounts

Gregg Keizer, Computerworld

Online auction site eBay has been targeted by identity thieves, who are wielding a botnet that uses brute force to uncover valid account log-in information, a Tel Aviv-based security company said Monday.

The attacks against eBay Inc. may have started as long ago as early August, said Ofer Elzam. He said that he and other researchers at Aladdin Knowledge Systems Ltd. have not been successful in notifying eBay of their weekend findings.

According to Elzam, the product manager of Aladdin's eSafe threat-protection line, the brute-force attacks are launched by a large botnet that the identity thieves have built using a sophisticated, multistage campaign that begins with compromised legitimate Web sites.

"My best estimate is that there are at least 300 compromised sites," said Elzam, who noted that they are spread worldwide and in several languages.

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PPR threatens to sue Ebay over fake goods

PPR, the French conglomerate that owns Gucci, Bottega Veneta and several other luxury goods brands, is threatening legal action against Ebay if the online auction site does not crack down further on counterfeits sold on its website.

In an interview with the Financial Times, François-Henri Pinault, PPR's chairman and chief executive, said that his company had been in talks with Ebay for several months in an attempt to improve the policing of fakes sold by the site's members.

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