eBay: Phishing likely to blame for members' data theft
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(InfoWorld) - 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 theÂ data disclosure on about 1,200 eBay membersÂ 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. Sharpe also defended eBay's reaction to the incident, in which a malicious user posted members' information like names, addresses, user IDs and, apparently, credit card numbers on the company's Trust & Safety discussion forum. In a discussion forum thread, some eBay members have criticized the vendor for, in their view, taking too long in shutting down the forum used by the fraudster. eBay took the Trust & Safety forum offline about an hour after the fraudster began posting the confidential data. Regarding the credit card numbers, eBay now knows they didn't belong to the affected members and is fairly certain that the numbers weren't valid at all. "We have reason to believe this data was falsified to cause public concern," Sharpe said. eBay hasn't been able to determine when the phishing scam may have taken place, she said, while declining to comment on whether the data theft may involve more than the 1,200 members whose information was listed. Sharpe declined to answer whether eBay can or plans to implement changes to its discussion forums so that potentially malicious postings or suspicious activities can be automatically flagged and alerts triggered. She also declined to comment on whether eBay has any theories on why the fraudster would choose to disclose the stolen data in such a public and brazen manner. As part of its investigation, eBay has contacted the affected users by telephone. In an official blog posting Wednesday night about this incident, an eBay staffer urged eBay users to be mindful about phishing scams and how to avoid falling victim to them. Sharpe said eBay shuts down over two-thirds of phishing spoof sites in under 24 hours. "There is no silver bullet to stop spoofing and phishing -- these are Internet problems, which is why eBay collaborates with numerous third parties, such as universities, industry leaders, and law enforcement to ensure eBay is a safe, transparent place to shop," she said. eBay members should always check their "My Messages" queue to verify any e-mail from eBay concerning their account. "If an e-mail affects your eBay account, it's in My Messages. If you get an e-mail that looks like it's from eBay about a problem with your account or requests personal information and it's not in My Messages, it's a fake e-mail," she said. Suspicious e-mails should be reported to these mailboxes: spoof@ebay.com or spoof@paypal.com. "Never click on a link or reply to e-mails that ask for personal information. eBay and PayPal will never ask you for your account or credit card details, username, or password in any communications," she said. It's also advisable for members to change their passwords frequently. More information about safety measures on eBay can be found on this Web site.
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Seen in wild for first time, malware cleans one victim out of $8,600 Miscreants have unleashed a new strain of a sophisticated Trojan that targets eBay users by feeding them spoofed web pages containing fraudulent information about high-ticket purchases, The Register has learned. It has already contributed to an $8,600 loss by one eBay member.â¦
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By Ben Goldby; James Green  Internet shoppers in the West Midlands have been warned to be on their guard after an investigation into eBay found the popular auction site is a prime target for counterfeiters.
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That email from your bank may be more than a friendly enquiry. It could be the hook of a Phisher, the new breed of Internet fraudster intent on stealing money by tricking customers into divulging online account details.
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Hacking tools nick nicked data Many of the people behind identity theft scams are themselves having data stolen from them in the process, a security researcher has revealed.â¦
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An analysis of 34,000 MySpace accounts stolen in a phishing attack reveals that the site's young users generally choose smarter passwords than corporate wage slaves. Commentary by Bruce Schneier.
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With phishing attacks skyrocketing, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has issued a consumer alert detailing ways Web surfers can avoid being fleeced by online scammers.
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Going, going, own3d Security researchers have discovered a sophisticated botnet attack targeting eBay customers, particularly those in the UK.â¦
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Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT), eBay (Nasdaq: EBAY), and  Visa International have banded together in an attempt to combat phishing attacks.
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Science & environment: The auction site has been the target of a hacker called Vladuz, whose actions are causing concern.
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Tool that identifies sites pretending to be connected to banks, eBay and more could help leave "phishing" scammers dead in the water.
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(InfoWorld) - Banks, online merchants, and technology vendors must work together to prevent security problems like phishing attacks and data breaches, eBayÂ President and CEO Meg Whitman said Thursday. Whitman called on large e-mail service providers, such as Yahoo and Microsoft, to reject e-mails supposedly coming from eBay or subsidiary PayPal that do not include domain key signing authentications on them. EBay now puts the digital signatures on all the e-mail it sends, amounting to "billions" of pieces of e-mail a year, Whitman said at a Visa USA security summit in Washington, D.C. Phishing attacks, in which a scammer sends fake e-mail to entice recipients into giving up passwords and other information, remain a major concern at eBay and PayPal, Whitman said. No longer the domain of small-time crooks with bad grammar, phishing schemes are becoming sophisticated tools of organized crime, she added. Even those customers who recognize phishing schemes can get disgusted and stop doing business with the targeted businesses, she added. "It erodes the trust we've tried so hard to build," Whitman said. "We need to make it so hard for the bad guys that they ultimately think it's not worth their time to mess with our customers." Whitman also called on banks to share information about known scams and data breaches more quickly with third-party payers like PayPal. In many cases, banks share the information with each other immediately, but it takes "days or weeks or months" to reach businesses like PayPal. With faster information sharing, more scams could be prevented instead of dealt with after the fact, she said. The eBay online auction model works because most people are basically good and not out to scam others, Whitman said. However, Internet scammers continue to look for new ways to make money, she said. "Security on the Internet is actually an arms race in the classic form," she said. Earlier in the conference, Visa USA President and CEO John Philip Coghlan told the audience of more than 400 business, government, and academic leaders that payment security must become more of a strategic priority for businesses. All organizations involved in the payments system need to invest in security, he said. Maintaining trust is "emerging as one of the critical business issues of the 21st century," Coghlan said. Visa is working on pilot programs to protect card security, including encryption and dynamically generated authorization information on payment cards, he said.
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Information on individuals has been collected in a scam using e-greetings that appear to come from a secret admirer.
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Online finance service PayPal, used by mainly people on eBay, introduces a security token to tackle fraud.
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SAN JOSE, Calif. -- Consumers are bombarded with warnings about identity theft. Publicized threats range from mailbox thieves and lost laptops to the higher-tech methods of e-mail scams and corporate data invasions.
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More than 3.5 million Americans were victims of phishing scams and online identity theft in the year that ended in August, a 57% increase over 2006, according to Gartner fraud analyst Avivah Litan.
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NEW YORK -- Consumers of Internet pornography who secretly signed up for memberships on adult-oriented Web sites in the past few months may be in for a shock -- some of their personal information, including e-mail addresses, may have been compromised by a security breach.