Tulsa Police Seeing Increase In eBay Hackings

Tulsa police are investigating several reports of recent eBay hackings.

They say hackers take over accounts and make big purchases, then, get the items shipped to a vacant house or apartment.

Tulsa police say they've had five eBay hacking cases this week, and several PayPal hackings as well.

It's nearly impossible for detectives to track down the hackers because they use IP addresses they get off the dark web, which leads nowhere.

One hacking victim, Jo, was shocked when her eBay account said she had bought a couple of vacuum robots and a Fitbit charger for almost $2,000.

She was equally surprised to see someone had changed her shipping address to one in Broken Arrow.

"It's just amazing to me that people do that. People just need to get a job and work hard for their stuff instead of stealing it from other people," she said.

Police said this is becoming common not only locally, but in other states as well.

They don't have the manpower to stake out all the places where people ship to, so we need to protect ourselves on the front end.

Corporal Matt Rose with the Tulsa Police Department said, "Use a password nobody is going to know, encrypt it, use numbers and letters and don't write down that information on a piece of paper where people can see."

Burglars use those pieces of paper or notebooks to access all your accounts.

EBay worked with Jo and she's not out any money, but she worries other people might not be so lucky.

"We work very hard for what we have,” she said. “If you need something, ask, but don't steal things from me. It did make me upset."

Experts say hackers can crack an eight-character password in about five hours, so your best defense is a good offense - check your accounts frequently for unauthorized activity so you can stop it before it costs you money.