eBay (UK) hacked?

fabfor

Anyone noticed items disappearing from their eBay watchlist after the auctions have ended?
This started happening in the last couple of weeks to a high proportion of my watched items so I contacted eBay who explained that it's caused by "unregistered bidders" winning auctions. Surely an unregistered bidder is by definition, a hacker?
This was happening so often that I contacted two of the affected sellers who confirmed my suspicion that this might be a large scale 'hack':
"Thanks for your question as it's been a surprise and a real frustration for me too.
In the last couple of weeks I've tried to sell 7 small items (all RAM & Graphics cards so nothing of huge value) and the majority of them have been won in the last seconds by someone who has '0' feedback history on eBay and their account closes literally minutes after they've won, so no sale and no money...
I've then been sent an email from eBay a few minutes after the sale closes with the following statement:
MC067 Suspicious buyer for item ....................................

Hello,
We had to cancel bids for the buyer, .................., because they aren't registered on eBay"

I'd be interested to hear from any forum members who are experiencing this, if only to gauge the scale of this problem. Thanks.

ballisticbrian

It has come up before on the forum but I never considered this to be a hack.

fabfor

Hack in the sense of gaining access illegally/illicitly.

NBLondon

Cynical thought - is it someone with a grudge setting up accounts just to bid on stuff from particular sellers? Auction wreckers is the term IIRC.

fabfor

It's happened to four unrelated sellers in my watchlist.

alykatz

This seems to be a very big problem in the catergory you are selling in and theres a few big posts about this on ebay community forum, seems to have been going on for quite a while from what i have read .

Rosemary7391

Is this more likely eBay removing suspicious accounts and just wording it really badly..?

alykatz

Rosemary7391 wrote: »

Is this more likely eBay removing suspicious accounts and just wording it really badly..?

Yes thats it exactly.

fabfor

You might be right but if that's so, then it's strange that it's only started happening to me and the two sellers I've contacted over the past few weeks. Plus would eBay cancel so many sales, losing revenue in the process, without good reason? I'll check on the eBay forum to see what's been said about this. Thanks for the replies.

alykatz

fabfor wrote: »

You might be right but if that's so, then it's strange that it's only started happening to me and the two sellers I've contacted over the past few weeks. Plus would eBay cancel so many sales, losing revenue in the process, without good reason? I'll check on the eBay forum to see what's been said about this. Thanks for the replies.

This is one of the more recent ones
https://community.ebay.co.uk/t5/Seller-Central/Fake-Buyers-Win-auctions-and-dissapear-account-created-on-the/td-p/5733075

ballisticbrian

Possibly bots set up to bid on all competitors products allowing one seller to remain with valid buyers.