Beware! Play.com hackers

VEGPIP

Hi all
Well good job i checked my email this morning, I received an email saying thankyou for your order for a blackberry curve..Well i hadnt ordered this, a lowlife loser who can't be bothered to get a job ordered this!!
I caught it just in time and cancelled my debit card and also phoned play.com and they apologised for the hacking and deleted my account and the order was cancelled.
The name of this people was 'john' haha its probably a woman, and i have the address but it says its for sale and is a london property. Is there any point in reporting this? :mad:

niceday999

This has happened me too on play.com.....its a disgrace.....How is this happening ?

VEGPIP

omg u too?
When i rang play.com they didnt seem surprised at all, did u report it? it must happen all the time? I've spent a lot with them but never again!:mad:

Nilrem

niceday999 wrote: »

This has happened me too on play.com.....its a disgrace.....How is this happening ?

Common ways include if the users email has been hacked (often remarkably simple given the average password security that a lot of people use*), which then lets someone see what shopping sites are used with that address...then it's a case of doing a password reset.
Or various bits of malware on the PC which will let them do things like have a keylogger to catch usernames and password.

I doubt it's Play who have been "hacked", it's much more likely the accounts are being hijacked because email accounts are compromised, which gives the "hacker" an easy way in.

I would strongly suggest the OP does a scan of his machine for malware using malwarebytes and a good up to date virus scanner, then (and only then) change the password for the email account that was used at Play.

It's one of the reasons I tend not to use the email address I have on forums for anything shopping related.


Vergpip, they probably aren't surprised for the simple reason it's not that unusual for people's accounts to be "hacked" - look at how often it happens to online banking, despite the huge amounts that the banks spend on improving their security and the much higher level of security they employ accounts still get hacked, usually down to something like someone having a keylogger, replying to a fake "Dear Sir/Madam your account details at the Bank of Scamsville have been lost, please enter them at the linkn below" email or leaving their details on/at a public machine.
Every online retailer I've used has had reports of "hacked" accounts that I've seen, it doesn't put me off because most of the time the reason for the hack is poor security at either the user (simple password/falling for a scam email) or the users email provider (never use webmail for something important).




*A large number of people use the same password for all sorts of things, and a surprising number may even use the same username AND password, or an extremely obvious password (such as a football team related login, then the name of the teams striker for the password).

Phantom_Flan_Flinger

There's a long running thread here, over in the 'Shop but don't drop' forum about Play.