Scammed!

What happened? Did you get scammed?

Kia Ora Lucy, 

Sorry to hear this has happened to you & Thank you for sharing,

Did you pay by Ping or Bank Deposit?

There is some very good Guidance written throughout this Post on Next Steps to take & How to Keep Safe Online to protect you and your accounts coming forward. - Cheers.

Yes I reported it to the police. I believed Trademe was a safe place to buy and sell; IT IS NOT. I feel absolutely unsafe now, as accounts should not be hacked! What are you going to do to prevent accounts being hacked and fake items being listed?

Dear Robert,

This happened to me on Saturday, I pushed buy now for a Thermomix.

It looked like a real item, I’m tech savvy, I’m smart and I have been using Trademe for around 15 years. The account was hacked, Trademe warned me only yesterday that it was a scam!!!! And do not complete the trade!!!! Too late, I already sent my money through from Kiwibank to ANZ to Russell Lilley. $1300 for a Thermomix that didn’t exist.

Trademe, it is your responsibility to ensure your customers are safe and their accounts do not get hacked. I do not expect accounts are hacked; I pay a premium price, I have made money for you for 15 years, I pay a lot of money for your fees so I expect a safe place to trade. What are you going to do?

Robert maybe if this is not resolved we should go to the media and also find other people who have been scammed on Trademe. People need to know Trademe is not safe anymore, we can’t buy and sell on Trademe if it is a place where anyone can get hacked.

I discovered my account had been hacked last night. A hacker had listed a computer for sale “Buy Now”, no Ping.
I rarely use TradeMe as a seller. I have a 100% positive rating.
The only reason I became aware of the listing is because a member asked a question about adding Ping to this listing that came to my email address. At this point I withdrew the listing and advised Trademe that the listing was not mine or legitimate. I’ve also changed my Trademe password. The hacker had not yet got around to changing my email or payment details in my Trademe account.
So far I have only received the auto reply from Trademe. 
I agree that there are no adequate safeguards on the Trademe site to protect legitimate sellers and buyers. I also did not get an email notifying me that my listing was live or any other activity was happening regarding this listing. Two step verification on any changes to account details is basic level security.

DW

They aren’t doing a thing.
There are some incredibly simple steps they could take but by not taking them they can encourage people to use Ping and they profit by it.
I’m still waiting for someone from TM to explain why that assertion is wrong. I really hope it isn’t but without someone explaining this inaction it’s a fair conclusion to draw.

I still haven’t heard back from the Police, ANZ, BNZ or TM about any progress.

We need to get together and UNITE if this issue is not resolved IMMEDIATELY. I am beyond furious at Trademe. It is not good enough! We pay a premium for added security measures. I am 100% going to all NZ media and social media and getting everyone together who has been wronged by Trademe to stop this if they don’t act quickly. They don’t know who they messed with! It is NOT OK.

We need to do everything we can. Maybe NZ media can help us expose this and get this all out there for everyone to see!!! NZ needs to know that Trademe is NOT SAFE. I’m not happy.

Omg just saw Davidas comment, WTF TradeMe, this is BS! Why are you guys not acting on this? In fact I’ve just realised they could stop this in many other ways too as you could set a parameter on your account like ‘only list between 7am and 11pm’ or whatever as these accounts are all getting hacked in the early hours of the morning. And yes Lucy, going to the media might be the only thing the TM corporate machine might listen to if they won’t listen to us.

To the CEO and managers of TradeMe, getting hacked or scammed is the same feeling as a burglary. You feel invaded and unsafe and your privacy has gone. How would you feel? Have a bloody heart and empathy and do something about it and stop mucking around with feedback experiments and out that team onto security else you won’t have sellers selling anything for people to even leave feedback on.

People should make sure they have their TM email options set to tick the box that says email me with A daily summary of listings I have listed.

I will 100% be going FULL FORCE into this. Trademe allowed my hard earnings to be taken from me and my son. They are sitting back allowing this to happen. What they do next will be interesting because I AM NOT BACKING DOWN. I hope you hear this Trademe. I will be the squeakiest wheel you’ve ever heard until this is resolved. Until then, all of NZ will know that Trademe is easy to hack and nobody who uses Trademe is safe anymore. Please act quickly, Trademe. It is not OK.

Cheers Gary for the Heads up on Box ticking through email notifications - Much appreciated 😊

Robert, check in with the Police & Both Banks - Those who stay on top of checking in get more active response from these parties, as let go - they tend to also.

Lucy, I'm reading between lines it was a Bank payment you made? Check in with your Bank(s) to see if you can get a reversal investigation underway.

Everyone, I have heard the ANZ Bank charge $25. to start this process.

- Cheers.

Just got your Pending Comment come through now Lucy - Cheers.

Many of us rely on TM for our businesses. TM help us out here. I’m still out of pocket from when it happened to me.
ANZ 04 account I presume?
To raise an enquiry of another bank costs $75 from the BNZ.
Maybe TM could make emails going out when listing an item the default for the first item listed on a day.
Good suggestion Gary, shame most don’t know those options exist.

Gosh that's quite the difference in Bank investigation fees Robert - Cheers for that and Yes! I think 'email me with A daily summary of listings I have listed' should be automatically the Default setting along with 'When auctions I have listed successfully sell' - Cheers.

Trademe needs to own up to this by at least sending out emails to everyone and being public with how easy they are to hack. I know lots of people will stop using Trademe because of this. Yes an 04 account unfortunately. Trademe needs to tell everyone or I will.

This is the response from the Police:
I have wrote back to them saying this needs to be investigated to stop whoever has scammed multiple persons to date and will continue to scam multiple people in the future and obviously the ANZ have a lot to answer for here too:

Dear Rob,

Thank you for taking the time reporting this matter to Police.

The Police are concerned about all crime and the effect it has on both you and the community.   Police follow an integrated ten step case management process to record, gather evidence, assess, screen and link matters and make decisions on priorities including attendance, investigation and prosecution.   Naturally complaints do need to be prioritised taking into consideration the seriousness, complexity, public interest, physical and emotional impact on the victim and the strength of evidence connecting the suspect to the crime.

Due to the sheer volume of the online frauds reported to Police we are unable to investigate each and every complaint. All complaints reported to Police either via ‘The Crime Reporting’ line or in person at a Police Station are collated, assessed and prioritised on a case by case basis.  You complaint has involved the transfer of money into an offshore account based in Australia, a result of our assessment there will be no further investigation of your recent fraud complaint.   

Your complaint has been entered into the National Intelligence Application (NIA) database which Police maintain to record such information.  For this reason, the electronic case file will be kept as a permanent record by the Police.  This email can be utilised to confirm that you have reported the matter to the Police.

Police recognise that being the victim of a crime is an upsetting event.  Victim Support in Canterbury is available to assist you if required.  You are able to contact them by calling 0800 VICTIM (0800 842 846).  There is also a Ministry of Justice website www.victimsinfo.govt.nz which has useful information to explain the criminal justice system and how people affected by crime can get support.

In order to reduce the likelihood of you becoming a victim of crime again please click on the link below for crime prevention advice:

Kia Ora All,

 A Handy Reminder to check in with a click into "My TM" top right of TM pages to view listings etc. - Keeping eyes on! - Keeping Safe! - Cheers.

Cheers Robert, - Thank you for sharing that response, it brings several liabilities into call here and I'm pleased you've fired back a response to this - They Have an Account & an Account Holder! How can it be Aus? This is against Trade Me site terms and conditions

TM Safe buying tips

- Cheers.

@S ...I guess the challenge is that the initial member has a legit NZ account, then once hacked changes it to Aussie (or elsewhere). it doesn't appear (to me) to be specific in there that you can't start out legit, then adjust to an alt. country.

To clarify:

The account holder was hacked so you think you are buying from a legitimate seller not some new member

ANZ operate 04 accounts that can be created by overseas account holders of the ANZs so moral of the story, do not ever pay into an 04 account.

The 04 account holder of the ANZ in this instance was tracked to Australia and despite them supposedly going through all the ANZ checks the Police aren’t pursuing it, nor probably are the ANZ.

Cheers Guys, - So TM can sue for breech of T&C's ...

No, the seller was unaware of anything going on. 
Why? Because they were hacked and TradeMe don't have any option whereby someone can hack your account and you know about it. 

I blame ANZ for allowing obviously scamming account holders to get away with this unscathed. Their lack of response has been deafening. 

I blame the NZ Police not for being under-resourced but immediately abandoning this as it's a scam when most likely these people are scamming hundreds or thousands of NZers.

But most of all I blame TradeMe for taking zero action to prevent this happening. Clearly these people are logging into peoples account from different destinations and on different devices and no waning is being sent to account holders. Usually, the only way any of these people know is when someone asks a question on one of these fake auctions. There is a long list of preventions TM could put in place and maybe they aren;'t applicable but they seem to be applicable for Google and Co so why not an online auction site? Anyone from TM want to explain that to us?

About the only precaution we can take, other than creating very difficult to break passwords is to check the box Gary referred to where we get an email to confirm a listing or similar.

Bear with me here ...

The Hacker/Scammer - TM Site Breached - We have A Bank Account Holder - We have a Bank acct Number the $ Money is in - The Police have this info' also and possibly more cases related to this 1 Bank Account Holder ...

What Law is TM going down to Prosecute the Bank Account Holder = Hacker/Scammer???

- Cheers.

I blame Trademe for not being secure enough! I expect Trademe to be a safe place to trade, not to send $1300 into some hacker’s account!!!!! Trademe is NOT being up front. Trademe is NOT warning any of it’s customers. I am not happy with Trademe in this case.

Apologies Guys, - I am talking about the Bank Account Holder the $ Money is in - Not the TM Account Holder here - I just realised how that may not have come through in comment and have corrected the above one.

I do realise TM aren't liable for loss either, as in their recent amendments to the T&C's however there is a Prosecution process ... 

I don't believe, given all the info', that there is Nothing being processed here!

- Cheers.

I wonder if it’s the all same bank account number we are giving this hacker money to

Cheers Lucy, That is the value in reporting the Bank Account & Holder details to the Police enabling a/the case's formulation and course - Cheers. 

What is this about TradeMe prosecuting?
That’s the literal ambulance at the bottom of the cliff.
I’d like them to do something to prevent members getting battered in the first place.

There’s a lot of silence from them on this.