Gangs based in Russia and Eastern Europe are believed to be hitting eBay and Pay Pal users with spoof e-mails that include key logging software aimed at trapping the users' personal details, British investigators said this week.
The National Hi-Tech Crime Unit is said to be investigating the gangs, following a rash of phishing attacks hitting eBay customers last year as well as so-called "matrix auctions," in which sellers advertise expensive items and send only information on how and where to buy them once the eBay sellers have the money in hand, according to British news reports.
The key loggers enable members of the cybercrime gangs to log onto breached eBay accounts and use them fraudulently for numerous purposes, investigators said.
Pay Pal users have reportedly been hit by password thieves who use that and other information to inter-trade items using others' accounts, they said, which proves especially annoying because Pay Pal funds are usually seen missing after a transaction is finished, and the two fraudulent traders can make documents to prove a legitimate deal occurred.
Internet watchdogs are said to believe at least two hundred fraudulent transactions a day occur on eBay, while eBay itself maintaines its two billion successful transactions testify to the auction kings' overall safety.
