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View Full Version : Ebay 'distance from' box shows a different postcode - has my account been hacked?


Mechta
12th Dec 2018, 19:18
The Ebay box for selecting the item location, which gives a choice of distances from a selected postcode, is showing a postcode that isn't mine and no one I know would have entered. This is the second time I've seen this postcode, the first time some months ago. Does this mean my account is being hacked, or is it just a quirk of the system? I realise that any postcode can be entered in the box, but I don't see how it is showing this one, as it is not mine or any of the family's. It is only three miles or so from my own postcode though.

Planet Basher
12th Dec 2018, 21:27
I have noticed that too but on my work computer which is in the national resilience set up. My home computer I do the buying on is normal.

FullOppositeRudder
13th Dec 2018, 10:53
It may be 'the system' trying to be helpful by suggesting what it thinks your location is. I discover that my computer here does this quite often - or rather suggests that it can share 'my location' - where the page I've loaded thinks it would be a good idea if it had that information (mostly when browsing for stuff which is available in several locations in a multiple branch store chain). The trouble is that where it thinks I am rarely coincides with my actual location - which is fixed for probably 95% of my online excursions. I've seen just occasionally where it bases that imagined location on my TCPIP address, which is invariably a wrong assumption.

Have you been hacked? I'm not an authority in these issues; my answer would be that I don't think so, but it always pays to be cautious when something unusual like this shows up.