Hacked and now EBay want to charge me £5097

honda90man

On the 12th February I was hacked and 495 cars were listed on my page.I informed EBay right away as I was getting loads of questions about these cars.The person I spoke to said they would deal with it,but nothing happen.I spent all day answering questions and deleting the listing,I’m 81 and retired so was able to do this.To add insult to injury EBay then charged my bank accounts £5097 for the listings.Fortunately my bank,First Direct were brilliant and cancelled the payment and standing order.
Since then I have tried phoning,chatting and finally writing to EBay but haven’t received any reply.They have now suspended my account and are still trying to charge me that £5k.
Anyone any Ideas on a way to speak to a human there?

My next thought is to go to the press.

soolin

All you can do is keep phoning them and ask to speak to someone who can help. 

Did you change your password as soon as you noticed the hack and have you taken steps to work out how the scumbag hacker got through the 2 levels of security. Also is there any possibility that someone close to you has done this, they must have had access to your ebay password and email password to get through security .

honda90man

Thanks for your reply.Yes I changed my password straight away.
I’ve been attempting to phone Customer Services for weeks now,I’ve even got to the stage where the robot tells me it will connect me to an advisor,but then the line is cut off.
I live just with my wife so nobody close to me has done it.

soolin

You shouldn’t be having issues getting through to eBay, it doesn’t usually take longer than 2-3 minutes. Do you have any access to the help system on eBay, as if you go through that you get a direct number. 

honda90man

Well I can never get through to them.
How do you get access to the help system,Ihave never heard of that.

soolin

Goto an eBay page, then there’s a tab at the top for help and contact , go into that and try various options asking questions until you get the phone number. The phone number will be unique, so no one else can get the number for you. 

Any random numbers for eBay online won’t get through, they are likely to just be the registered HQ or post address, not customer services. 

honda90man

Well as I woke early this morning,7,I tried calling them and received a call back 2 minutes later.
After talking to the lady for a few minutes I got cut off.Thought here we go again.
Tried a second time and got a call back again and everything seems to be going OK.
She’s going to call me back at 10 when she can speak to another office which doesn’t open until then.
So,hopefully,this will sort it out.
Many thanks for you advice.

GadgetGuru

What an awful situation - I hope it gets resolved asap!

honda90man

Well I got called back by the very helpful lady who tried to transfer me to the department she wanted me to talk to.I assume it’s the one that are trying to charge me £5097.Anyway I got through but it was an automated voice that told me they were busy and to call back later and then cur me off.
So I called Customer Services and by some miracle I got through again and spoke to a young man.This one couldn’t find my name in his system,so was unable to do anything.I used my name for 18 years on EBay,had 100% feedback and over 500 transactions.You just can’t believe it.
At this stage I am going to the press and see if they can help.

drjohn67

If I understand it correctly, they are trying to charge for adverts - it is not clear if those adverts resulted in any sales for the people who hacked your account.

They have lost nothing of material value - they just did not gain fees related to the adverts. Also, they have no evidence that they would otherwise have gained (who knows if those people would have used eBay if they were not able to hack your account).

It seems very likely that these adverts were for cars that the individuals did not even own - “please transfer to this account and we will deliver this 50k to you at half price, etc…”
Otherwise the fraudsters could be tracked through DVLA, etc.

I would take the position that their security systems were compromised and that you took action at the first indication of fraud thereby allowing them to take appropriate action and cancel adverts / notify any bidders (if any). If they did not take such action then that is their problem. 

It would be hard to see a Court Case against you succeeding.

I would now send a recorded delivery letter to the eBay head office in Richmond outlining your dissatisfaction including the substandard customer services that has been made available.

Pollycat

honda90man said:

At this stage I am going to the press and see if they can help.

You might want to try this:
BBC Radio 4 - Money Box - Contact Money Box

Or maybe social media - twitter, facebook.