Girls Write Out
Tuesday, November 14, 2006
FEAR AND TREMBLING

I had a scary shock of my own today, and it had nothing to do with reading a suspense novel. I was hot on the trail of my normal routine: email and coffee. I lifted the lid of my MacBook and my email sprang to view. First there were two emails from a couple of people asking about a Coach purse I had listed on eBay. First of all, I dislike Coach purses (too soft and floppy and I don't like the patterns) and secondly, I've never sold anything on eBay in my life. When I got the second email just like the first, I was convinced they were a scam.

Then the shock: an email from eBay telling me my account is suspended for said purse violation. Still a scam, I'm thinking but the unease started. I went to my Firefox and went to eBay (don't EVER click a link in an email like that) and tried to log in.

I COULDN'T! I really was suspended. Someone has broken into my eBay account. I felt violated, betrayed. And then downright mad that eBay didn't even have the courtesy to take a look and see that it obviously had to be a scam. Just a curt email telling me I was suspended. It's enough to make me switch to anything Google.

What's up with that though? Can't people use their own accounts to sell purses? Why hijack an innocent bystander's lone little account used to buy Mac memory and computer peripherals? It makes no sense to me. But I had to write eBay and tell them they're idiots.

On a happy note, if you've been trying to buy Fire Dancer and were told it was backordered, it's supposed to hit the warehouse tomorrow and start shipping out again. This is the third printing so it's been flying off the shelves.

Just don't buy it on eBay!
Colleen Coble  
posted at 8:12 AM  
  Comments (12)
 
 
Delicious Delicious
12 Comments:
At 1:46 AM, Blogger eileen said...

Gasp! You're the first person I've known to be un-Ebayed. Wow. Scary! Just before Christmas, too.

Seriously, I wonder about hacking. I need to be more cautious. Keep us updated.

 
At 9:48 AM, Blogger Tina Ann Forkner said...

Don't feel bad Colleen. It's happened to me before. And congrats on a third print run. Wow!!!

 
At 9:56 AM, Blogger Unknown said...

And that's why I cancelled all my accounting with ebay.

 
At 10:06 AM, Blogger Malia Spencer said...

Ooo. Sorry to hear about that Colleen. How in the world did they get that information? That's scary. I think I'm going to go change a bunch of passwords and make them as difficult as possible. Dictionary here I come.

On a brighter note, congrats on the third print run! Fire Dancer is a great book. I know those people who are waiting will feel it was worth it. :)

 
At 10:24 AM, Blogger Colleen Coble said...

I've always loved eBay but this has sure shaken my confidence!

 
At 10:59 AM, Blogger ~ Brandilyn Collins said...

I'm sorry, Colleen. I've had the same thing happen on ebay. Problem is, I get SO MANY scam emails about ebay that I ignore them all. The time my account was compromised, I shouldn't have been ignoring. Ebay called me, however. They discovered it before I did and fixed everything, including all the negative comments people had left about me not sending items they'd "bought" from me. The techie guy did say that any real email from ebay will address you BY NAME. The others are frauds.

I echo Malia in congratulating you on the reprints. That's wonderful!

 
At 1:05 PM, Blogger Julie Carobini said...

Ugh! My son's doing a high school research project on cyberscamming. May he quote you???

What a pain. Thankfully you're too busy autographing books to let this get you down--lol :-)

 
At 6:10 PM, Blogger Kayla said...

I read this right before I went to bed last night, so I think it caused me to have a dream about you.

Somehow I was with you and you ended up on that show 1 vs. 100 and you had to play. Random, I know. Then somehow I got to my college and Kristin was an old, cranky English professor that absolutely despised me.

*shrug* Don't ask. I guess I shouldn't read this and drink chai before bed!

 
At 11:09 PM, Blogger Heather said...

congrats on the 3rd run! No wonder I haven't been able to find it on the shelves at the Family Christian around the corner. Hmmm . . .wonder if that's why I can't get the Music Machine CDs as well.

On ebay . . . if you have a credit card that was listed in your ebay account, call and check to make sure they haven't hijacked that as well. We had someone charge $5000+ in France a couple years back. We're fairly certain it's from ebay.

Tehehe . . .I read your suspended account and thought "They should be suspending mine for excessive use of Gymboree shopping!"

 
At 11:18 PM, Blogger Kayla said...

LOL Kristin I could not understand why you had steel gray hair and tons of wrinkles.

And I KNOW that you love me :-D

 
At 3:29 PM, Blogger Mindy Obenhaus said...

You know, Colleen, the cyber world can be a scary place. Scarier than a dark alley sometimes. And this world is obviously filled with too many people that have way too much time on their hands.
Too cool on the third printing.

Mindy Obenhaus

 
At 12:07 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

That's great news about the 3rd printing. I can't wait to read it. I can't buy any books right now since we are putting everything we can spare to this trip.
I'm sorry to hear about the eBay mess. Why people have to be jerks I just don't know.
I really should stop reading and finish packing. Yikes. :)

 

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The Authors
Kristin Billerbeck
Kristin Billerbeck is a proud Californian, wife, mother of four, and connoisseur of the irrelevant. She writes Christian Chick Lit; where she finds need for most of the useless facts lulling about in her head.

www.KristinBillerbeck.com

Colleen Coble

Colleen Coble writes romantic suspense with a strong atmospheric element. A lovable animal of some kind--usually a dog--always populates her novels. She can be bribed with DeBrand mocha truffles.

www.ColleenCoble.com

Denise Hunter

Denise Hunter writes women's fiction and love stories with a strong emotional element. Her husband says he provides her with all her romantic material, but Denise insists a good imagination helps too.

www.DeniseHunterBooks.com

Diann Hunt

Diann Hunt writes romantic comedy and humorous women's fiction. She has been happily married forever, loves her family, chocolate, her friends, chocolate, her dog, and well, chocolate.

www.DiannHunt.com

Hannah Alexander

Cheryl Hodde writes romantic medical suspense under the pen name of Hannah Alexander, using all the input she can get from her husband, Mel, for the medical expertise. For fun she hikes and reads. Out of guilt, she rescues discarded cats. She and Mel are presently taking orders from four pampered strays.

www.HannahAlexander.com

 
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