What Do I Do If There's a Fraudulent Charge on My eBay Account?

eBay, much like many online companies, has had a few security breaches over the years. If you notice a fraudulent charge on your eBay account, you will need to act immediately by follow these helpful tips.

eBay is an online platform where users can buy and sell products to each other. The American company was founded in 1995 by Pierre Omidyar during the dot-com buddle. eBay is the world's tenth-largest Internet company by revenue.

eBay, much like many online companies, has had a few security breaches over the years. If you notice a fraudulent charge on your eBay account, you will need to act immediately. Follow the steps as outlined below.

Some signs to watch out for that can indicate that your account has been compromised include:

  • Suddenly being locked out of your account

  • Selling items you've never listed

  • Unexplained transactions

  • Complaints from third parties

Change Your eBay Password and Verify Account Information

  1. You need to notify eBay as quickly as possible so they can recover your account and stop further transactions. Before contacting eBay, you will want to secure your account and get as much information as possible so the eBay customer service representative can better assist you.

  2. Go to www.ebay.com

  3. Select 'My eBay' in the top right corner of the screen.

  4. You can sign in to your account with your email address and password. Alternatively, you can sign in with your Facebook or Google accounts.

  5. If you are unable to sign in to your account, contact eBay Customer Support by phone immediately. If you can still sign in to your account, change your email and password immediately.

  6. Change your secret question.

  7. Verify your contact information and payment details. Make sure that the shipping address, payment information, and contact information on the account haven't been changed.

  8. Check your active bid on your account and make sure they are all yours. You will need to contact eBay to remove fraudulent bids or listings.

Contact eBay Customer Service Via Phone

After you have completed the above steps, you should call the eBay Customer Service team by phone. You may have to provide some personal information to verify your identification. Make sure to have the eBay customer service representative email you a confirmation of the call and next steps, so there is a record that you alerted eBay as quickly as possible.

After contacting eBay, contact your bank and notify them about the security breach. Follow your bank's advice on the next steps.

Contact eBay Customer Service Online

Note that this response is not necessarily recommended. Response via email can take several hours or days. While you have changed your eBay password, your account has been hacked into before, so it's considered vulnerable.

  1. You can choose to alert eBay to the fraudulent activity on your account by going to this link.

  2. Fill out the form. You will need to provide your email address, your User ID (optional ID), and details of the fraudulent charges.

  3. Select 'Send' and wait for eBay to respond to you.

  4. Contact your bank and notify them about the security breach. Follow your bank's advice on the next steps.

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Christian has been writing about long hold times and customer service call center experiences since 2010. He's been featured in Bloomberg, the Wall Street Journal and the Boston Globe.

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GetHuman has been working for over 10 years on sourcing information about big organizations like eBay in order to help customers resolve customer service issues faster. We started with contact information and fastest ways to reach a human at big companies. Particularly ones with slow or complicated IVR or phone menu systems. Or companies that have self-serve help forums instead of a customer service department. From there, we realized that consumers still needed more detailed help solving the most common problems, so we expanded to this set of guides, which grows every day. And if you spot any issues with our What Do I Do If There's a Fraudulent Charge on My eBay Account? guide, please let us know by sending us feedback. We want to be as helpful as possible. If you appreciated this guide, please share it with your favorite people. Our free information and tools is powered by you, the customer. The more people that use it, the better it gets.

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