John Canfield

Hi everyone…this is John Canfield, Senior Director of eBay’s Fraud Prevention Policy team. We are constantly working to keep eBay safe, and you also play an important role in your own online security. 

You may have heard on the news that April 1 is a day of potential issues with a worm known as Conficker.  The worm can be transmitted via infected USB drives, websites, or networks if a computer does not have the latest security updates. We have confirmed that visiting the eBay site alone will not expose your system to this worm, but having a secure computer is an important step to transacting safely on the web, so we encourage you to visit Microsoft’s page for protecting yourself against Conficker.

Strong passwords are also important to your online security. We recently introduced a new feature that makes it easy to strengthen your password. On the Change Password page, as you type in your new password, you’ll see feedback based on four criteria for how easy or difficult it is to guess. Your new password will be allowed only when you have passed each of the four criteria.

We also recommend that you have a secure password for your email account. Make sure you do not have the same username for your eBay and your e-mail accounts, and never use the same password across both accounts. This is important because fraudsters target e-mail accounts for takeover, and if they succeed, they have easier access to your other online accounts using Forgot My Password. 

Thank you for your attention and cooperation in keeping eBay—and all your online transactions—safe.

Sincerely,
John Canfield
Senior Director Fraud Prevention Policy