Hello Everyone,
The eBay Toolbar with the Account Guard feature was discussed a number of times during the recent eBay Live in New Orleans. I would highly encourage everyone to make use of this tool, regardless of whether or not you are an eBay member.
Account Guard is an essential tool to help protect you against spoof emails and spoof websites.
Although I am only going to discuss some of the specifics of the Account Guard feature that may not be clear to everyone, there are many other benefits associated with the eBay Toolbar. Please visit the eBay Toolbar page located at http://pages.ebay.ca/ebay_toolbar/ for more information. This page includes the link to download the Toolbar, as well as a FAQ page, a Tour of the Account Guard features, etc.
There are three possible colors for the Account Guard portion of the eBay Toolbar.
Green – indicates that you are on an eBay or PayPal site
Gray / no color – indicates that you are on an unidentified website and NOT on an eBay or PayPal site
Red – indicates that you are on a potential spoof site
Many members never see the Account Guard turn red, and we hope that you won’t. However, this does not mean that you should not be cautious.
IMPORTANT: if you are on a page that appears to be an eBay or PayPal webpage, but you find that the Account Guard is gray and NOT GREEN, then you are NOT on a eBay or PayPal webpage.
eBay recommends that you do not use the same password for various accounts and websites. We recommend that your eBay account, PayPal account, email account, bank pin code, online banking password, etc all be different passwords. This will help to prevent the compromise of one account turning into the compromise of other accounts. An added feature of the eBay Toolbar with Account Guard is that it will recognize if you are using your eBay password on another site. This will help you to check to ensure that you are not using the same password for different accounts.
Finally, if you should find yourself on a potential spoof site, you can report the site directly to eBay through the Toolbar.
We are committed to online safety and hope that you will make use of this important tool. And remember, even if you are not an eBay member. eBay has already partnered with a major ISP to share information about fraudulent sites and we hope to continue in this direction.
Please also visit the following page for other important account security related information: http://pages.ebay.ca/help/confidence/ia/account_theft.html
Sincerely,
Avery
eBay Trust & Safety