My eBay Identity Crisis

The price you pay when someone steals your online accounts

Posted on 9/8/2010 at 7:00AM

Im not feeling like myself today. Well, actually eBay thinks I'm not myself and I'm easily influenced. Apparently I've just been a victim of identity theft. Identity theft is such an interesting thing, rife with philosophical conjecture. I mean, would someone actually want to be me? Can I give them my negative Philly Post feedback along with my credit card number? Can they discipline my child for me in addition to emptying my bank account? Walk the dog?

I'm not sure if it's a coincidence or not, but my credit card was breached about five months ago, which really sucked. It didn't suck because someone was foiled trying to buy plane tickets with it, but because it was the one credit card number I knew by heart. For online shopping, of course. It was the card that was registered with Paypal and all my favorite stores. It was a huge pain in the ass to memorize a new number, new expiration date and new security code. At this point in life, I'm lucky to remember my phone number. Then I went to eBay to bid on a "primitive" plate rail for my mother when I was suddenly unable to log on. To add insult to injury, even my secret question (pet's name) didn't work when I went into my account. Bad enough to steal my identity, but my dog's? That's just wrong.

read the rest