After reading other postings enumerating similar but not identical difficulties with erroneous popups, I decided to go ahead with my version of this anomaly for the benefit of others who may read it.
My main computer is a 2014 System76 laptop running Intel® Core™ i7-4910MQ CPU @ 2.90GHz × 8 & Ubuntu 16.04 LTS with ClamTK and Firefox
This morning, checking email (Sylpheed free Version 3.5.0 (Build 1169) I noticed a message from ebay advising that their Security wing suspected my account had been tampered (He sez, "I told you I wuz gonna tamper with you, baby, not take you to Florida") and that my password had been rescinded, pending renewal. I'm pasting the message below:
From:
no.reply@ebay.com
To:
mike1792@yandex.com
Subject: Unauthorized use of your account -- action required
Date: Fri, 4 Aug 2017 21:14:36 -0700 (GMT-07:00)
Unauthorized use of your account -- action required
Hello Mike,
We have reason to believe that your eBay account has been used fraudulently without your permission. We've reset your eBay password. If you had your PayPal account linked to your eBay account, we've disabled your PayPal link to protect your funds. Any unauthorized activity, such as buying or selling, has been canceled and any associated fees have been credited to your account. Any listings that we removed are included toward the end of this email. We assure you that your financial information is securely stored on a server and cannot be seen by anyone.
Although we've taken steps to secure your eBay account, your personal email account or third-party listing tools may have also been accessed without your permission. Please change these passwords as soon as possible.
Once you've secured your personal email account and third-party listing tools, please change your eBay password, and reset your PayPal link (if applicable):
1. Select the "Sign in" link at the top of the eBay home page.
2. Select the "Forgot your password" link.
3. Enter your email or username, and then select the "Next" button.
4. Follow the instructions to change your password.
5. To relink your PayPal account (if desired), go to "My eBay" and click the "Account" tab.
6. Click the "PayPal Account" link on the left-hand side of the page.
7. Click the "Link My PayPal Account" button.
8. Log into PayPal to finish linking your accounts.
If you are an active seller and use PayPal to pay your fees, it's important that you reset your PayPal link before your next billing cycle to avoid any further disruption.
Once your password is changed, we recommend updating your secret questions and verifying that the contact information on your eBay account is correct. For detailed instructions, please visit:
http://pages.ebay.com/help/account/s...nt.html#secure
To learn more about keeping your eBay account secure, please visit:
http://pages.ebay.com/help/account/p...g-account.html
If you have any problems changing your password, please contact us:
http://ocsnext.ebay.com/ocs/eua?doma...ForgotPassword
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I'm almost positive that this response from ebay was generated by the fact that as of two days ago I joined IPVanish VPN and now have a concealed presence on the Net.
. . . Ebay intimated me as being the bad guy, which if true is laughable.
At any rate I went ahead with the semantic of changing my long-held ebay email handle, just as enumerated above and when the message from ebay with the verification URL arrived in my Inbox and I clicked it, a strange popup appeared (as attached to this post) advising of a fraudulent URL.
This same type of thing happened just a few days back and so far I have never been able to discover definitively what on-board software may be responsible.
But assuming Firefox is the instigator it will now be my aim to disable Firefox' authorization for such actions, which thing I believe can be accomplished by UN-checking a few boxes in the Preferences section.
As lindav, a poster with similar complaints put it (to paraphrase). . . why should we be made to pay a toll for honesty?