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eBay denies hack report

By Tracy Burrows, ITWeb contributor.
Johannesburg, 27 Jul 2004

Online auction site eBay has denied reports that Nigerian 419 hackers compromised its users` credit card information.

Local media reports yesterday warned South Africans that if they had used eBay`s services, their credit card details had probably been compromised by hackers. The reports quoted a notice on local anti-419 scam Web site, www.419legal.org.

eBay spokesman Hani Durzy told auction site news hub www.auctionbytes.com that eBay`s database had never been hacked.

He denied that eBay was working with South African police on any investigation relating to such a charge. "We are in constant communication with the US Secret Service, they have not contacted us, and we have not heard from South African police."

419Legal states that it is a project launched this year by Inspector Rian Visser of the Johannesburg Commercial Branch of the South African Police Services. Strangely, the site calls on people with queries about whether their credit cards were compromised to input their credit card number onto the 419legal.org site to check.

Local users question why 419legal.org is not registered in Visser`s name and why the Web master would have a list of allegedly compromised credit card numbers in his possession.

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