Sunday, January 21, 2007

A Letter to eBay Members that have been Hijacked Repeatedly


Dear Hijacked eBay Member,

It has come to our attention that with continued regularity that we have reported your account to eBay as hijacked. You continue to disregard instructions given to you so that you may keep your eBay account secure. It has even been suggested that you take eBay's Account Protection Tutorial.

While we at Team Whack a Hack work diligently to report hijacked accounts to eBay, it, however, has one very serious drawback. When we have to report your account more than once, it takes time away from other users who are hijacked for the first time. It takes time for eBay's Live Help agents to secure your account again and again. This is an unnecessary burden for both the members of Team Whack a Hack and eBay's Live Help agents.

We can forgive your faux pas the first time, because everyone is entitled to make a mistake. The second time we report your account as hijacked, we think you may not have followed all of the instructions given to you. But, when we report your account three or more times as hijacked, then we believe that you are at fault.

It seems that you are not able to understand the instructions you have been given numerous times to avoid fake log on pages, spoof and phishing emails; and just as importantly, how to clean your computer of viruses, keyloggers and other malware.

Team Whack a Hack is now enacting the following policy for those eBay members that are repeatedly hijacked:

  1. When we find your account taken over due to your inability to follow instructions, we will report it to eBay the first time and follow-up with eBay's Live Help agents.
  2. When we find your account hijacked a second time, we will again report it to eBay so your account can be secured once more.
  3. However, when we find your account hijacked a third time, we will require you to give us your name and home address. Please advise if the computer you are using is at your home or office. We will then arrange for a member of Team Whack a Hack to come to the location and secure your computer for you. We will secure your computer for better utilization, as we know you are unable to secure it yourself. We will give you a receipt for the computer equipment, which you will be able to use for tax purposes, as you will of course be donating all of your computer equipment to Team Whack a Hack! We can put your computer to good use.*

We will also mention your donation to our cause, which is tracking and reporting scammers. With the absence of your computer equipment, we will better be able to track and report those deserving of our time. You will be better suited to watching television or reading the book you always wanted to read.

By us taking your computer away, this will also allow Team Whack a Hack and eBay's Live Help agents to more productively assist first time offenders. We believe education is the first step in recovery, and we have tried to warn you repeatedly, but you seem to have little consideration for the buyers on eBay that get scammed by hijackers because you cannot secure your computer and eBay account. Believe it or not, but you are at fault, and you are responsible for your computer and your eBay user ID and password. You are supposed to take every precaution to protect your account from getting hijacked.

The eBay Live Help agents will also thank you for donating your computer equipment. They also are tired of repeat offenders like yourself. They instruct members how to avoid spoof and phishing emails and how to avoid giving out personal information to predators that lurk on eBay.

Users such as yourself become a burden to all of us that are trying to secure and safeguard eBay from predators. Unfortunately, in your case because your user ID has been repeatedly hijacked, there appears to be no cure for stupidity. We truly would like to give you one more chance, but we don't have the resources to babysit you. Team Whack a Hack's primary concern is for eBay buyers; we don't want them duped into thinking that listings on your hijacked account are legitimate. If we didn't care about the buyers, we would just skip over your account and not report it.

Because we cannot force you to act responsibly, and we don't want to have to report your account again, we suggest that because of your carelessness that you immediately request that eBay close your account. Please click on this link to begin the process of closing your account. If you do not resign from eBay and we have to report your account again, we will also publish your name on this blog as a repeat offender. It is not our intent to embarrass you, but to warn and protect potential buyers that if listings appear on your account that it very well may be hijacked and that any listings on it are deemed fraudulent. We will have no choice but to expose you in order to protect buyers at any cost.

Thank you for your cooperation. We wish you the best of luck in the future, far away from eBay.

Thank you.

Team Whack a Hack


*We are being facetious about taking away your computer. Believe us, if we could, we would, so please do everything possible to keep your private information secure and away from predators.

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