What are Hijacked Accounts?
Hijacked eBay accounts are accounts that have been deceitfully taken from their rightful owners. A few posts back, I showed a few ways whereby the "less-than-honest" people can get some reputation, or positive feedback. Hijacking other users' accounts are just an extreme way of doing that. In some places, hijacking can be known as hacking.
Hijacked eBay accounts are accounts that have been deceitfully taken from their rightful owners. A few posts back, I showed a few ways whereby the "less-than-honest" people can get some reputation, or positive feedback. Hijacking other users' accounts are just an extreme way of doing that. In some places, hijacking can be known as hacking.
How do you avoid being scammed by Hijacked Accounts?
It's not easy to detect hijacked accounts, because they were legit once. However, just because they are difficult to detect, does not mean it is impossible. There are some signs to determine if the account is hijacked or not.
- The seller tries to make you contact them via an external e-mail address.
- The seller is selling items of a totally different nature from the ones sold before this. It's possible to check using eBay's history function.
Some things that can be done to minimize risk are:
- Try not to trade using wire-transfer, money order, or personal cheque. Using this is like using money. These methods offer no protection to the buyer. Companies like PayPal, though not foolproof, is a much safer bet. Make an account there and use it for all your transactions.
- Check the bidders of the sale, if any. See if they have any other bids, or if they keep bidding on each other's items, but never buy them. Some fraudulent buyers use multiple accounts to make their bid look more appealing, and to raise the price.
By taking these simple precautionary measures, one can minimize the risk involved in trading online.
Sounds dangerous, as there might not be any ostensible danger signs with these hijacked accounts. Just goes to show how careful you have to be when dealing with other people online.
ReplyDeleteWhen you think of it, everything relating to the Internet is dangerous. That's why Internet Security companies are doing so well. xD
ReplyDeleteWe just need to know what kind of precautions to take, I think. Surf intelligently, as it were.
Hi Mark. Thanks for bringing up these points. From what I heard from other people and my own personal experience, I believe PayPal is the wisest choice too.
ReplyDeleteHi Mark! I think all the talk about cyberspace being so dangerous and new media therefore being detrimental to us is really unfair. The tools that can improve our quality of life are often abused, but if we take precautions and suss out net advice like those you provide, we can indeed surf intelligently and make the most out of what new media offer.
ReplyDelete-- Tan Su Yi Kay 0703121D T04
Hi Mark, this post will certainly help a lot during an online transaction.
ReplyDeleteAny tool is dangerous if not used properly, and I think the Internet is no exception. There will always be childish people who are too lazy to work and want to make a quick buck. They thus resort to stealing from naive people.
ReplyDeleteThat's the reason this blog exists, to help people not get conned by evil people.
xD
Hi Mark, very useful post to share.
ReplyDeleteOnline fraud is increasing rapidly.More and more people are suffered from hacking just because they don't know how to avoid it.Therefore, your informations are valuable and i have knew the ideas and knowledges to prevent hacking.
Hi Mark,
ReplyDeleteThis post is very informative (:
It will help alot for those who have been using online transactions and also gain awareness to those who does not use.